Section I - Multiple Choice: select ONE SINGLE BEST answer from the options

(5pts each)

1. Which of the follwing statements is NOT an outcome of scaling laws?

(A) Smaller objects have larger surface-to-volume ratio
(B) Diffusion occurs faster in shorter distance
(C) Miniaturized devices tend to respond faster
(D) Gravitational force becomes more important than capillary force for smaller objects

2. Which of the following has the highest conductivity?

(A) Pure silicon
(B) Pure silicon doped with As at 1022/cm3 concentration
(C) Silicon nitride
(D) Polysilicon
3. Which of the following statements about contact angle is NOT true?
(A) The contact angle can be changed by changing the temperature.
(B) A contact angle of 30 indicates a hydrophobic surface.
(C) The contact angle can be changed by changing the solid/liquid surface tension.
(D) The contact angle can be changed by an externally applied electric potential.

4. Which of the following statements about physical vapor deposition (PVD) is NOT true?
(A) The film is formed though chemical reaction in vapor phase.
(B) Both evaporation and sputtering are PVD processes.
(C) It is usually performed under low pressure vacuum chambers.
(D) Compared to sputtering, films prepared by evaporation generally have less surface
roughness.

5. Which of the following is a thermoplastic?

(A) Cured PDMS
(B) Cured SU-8
(C) Polycarbonate
(D) Parylene

6. Which of the following glass microfabriation techniques has micrometer resolution and is
capable of directly forming patterns inside the glass at the same time?
(A) Poweder blasting
(B) Ultrasonic machining
(C) Pulse laser writing
(D) Photolithography and HF etching

Section II – Answer the following questions. Show important steps of calculations.

7. (a) (5pts) Use scaling law to analyze how capillary force scales with length scale.
(b) (5pts) Use scaling law to analyze how Reynolds number scales with length scale.

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8. (10 pts) What are the major differences between a thermoplastic and a thermoset? Sketch and
compare the molecular structure of a thermoplastic and a thermoset.

9. (10 pts) You are etching a trench in a Si (100) wafer. Sketch the expected etch profiles if you
are using (a) isotropic wet etching and (b) anisotropic wet etching. What causes the different
etching profile in these two processes?

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10. (15 pts) Compare the following two different flows of water:
Flow I: water flowing through a cylindrical water pipe with a wide diameter of 100mm. Flow
velocity: 100mm/s.
Flow II: water flowing through a microfluidic channel (rectangular cross-section, width=0.5mm,
height=0.1mm). Flow velocity: 10mm/s
(density of water: 1x103 kg/m3, viscosity:1x10-3 kg/s m, note: 1mm=0.001m).
(a) (10pts) Calculate the Reynolds number for both flows.
(b) (5pts) For each flow, is it a laminar flow or turbulent flow? What are the major characteristics
of a laminar or turbulent flow?

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11. (15 pts) Compare pressure-driven flow with electroosmotic force (EOF) driven flow.
(a) (5 pts) Sketch the steady state velocity profile of a pressure-driven flow. Describe the main
characteristics of the profile.
(b) (5 pts) Sketch the steady state velocity profile of an EOF driven flow. Describe the main
characteristics of the profile.
(c) (5pts) Compare the advantages of pressure-driven flow and electroosmotic force (EOF)
driven flow for applications in bioMEMS.

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12. (10 pts) The cross-section of one MEMS device is schematically shown in the figure below.

(a) (5 pts) What microfabrication techniques do you plan to use to fabricate this device? Sketch
the cross-section view of the fabrication process.

(b) (5 pts) L1 on your mask design is 1.200 mm, the diaphragm size L in the device is designed to
be around 0.85mm. The common standard silicon wafer thickness is 0.125mm, 0.25mm, 0.5mm,
or 1 mm. Which wafer thickness should be chosen for this fabrication?

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(end of exam papers)