BME804/BE8102 – Winter 2022

Design of BioMEMS

Dr. Virgilio (Vivo) Valente

ENG450 – vvalente@ryerson.ca
BME804/BE8102 - W2022 - Course Information

▪ Lectures on Mondays 8am-11am

▪ Theory, exercises, group activities, project work
▪ Last lecture in week 13– project presentations for BME804
▪ No lecture or labs Feb 21-25 (reading week)
▪ 3 Labs - From week 2-10
▪ 2 TAs (Kiana & Conor)
▪ 2 Sections
▪ Midterm week 7 (after reading week) Mon Feb 28, 9am-11pm

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Exams and assessments
▪ Mid-term (25%)
▪ Mid-term exam in Week 7 (Feb 28) @ 9AM on D2L
▪ Closed book - 2 hours on material covered in week 1-5 and labs
▪ Final exam (35%)
▪ Closed book – 3 hours – on all course material – on D2L
▪ Review material in preparation for both exams posted on D2L

BME804 - Undergrads BE8102 - Grads

▪ Project (20%) ▪ Project (40%)
▪Project reports (10% BME804) ▪ Project reports (40%)
▪Project presentations (10%) ▪ No presentations
▪ Labs (20%) - Only for BME804 ▪ No labs

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Term Projects – Groups & topics

• Design of a BioMEMS device for the chosen application

• Groups of 4 students*
• Group list and project topics by end of week 4 – Fill in gsheet (link in
‘Projects’ section in D2L)
• Project ideas posted on course shell
• Please do not join a group until you are 99.99999% sure you’ll stay on this
course
* Some groups may have 3 or 5 members depending on the total number of students and groups

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Term Projects – Reports & Presentations
• Project reports (submit on D2L)
• BME804 due on week 12 Fri Apr 8 by 11.59pm (grade 10%)
• BE8102 due on week 13 Thur Apr 14 by 11.59pm (grade 40%)
• Report format based on IEEE templates (download from course shell) – MAX 6
pages (BME804) or 10 pages (BE8102) including references (excl. appendices).

Only for BME804:

• Project presentations of 12 min in week 13 (grade 10%)
• All students must present (3 min each) – groups self-organize topics and split
time equally
• Each group assigned to another group for Q&A session (3 min)
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Project report
• IEEE paper format (word or latex template in course shell)
• Max 6 pages (BME 804) and 10 pages (BE8102) including figures, tables,
equations and references (exceeding the max will be a minus) – excluding
appendices if any
• Submit only .pdf format (convert word or latex files)
• Must include: Title, abstract, introduction to the application, literature
review, design description and discussion, conclusion and reference
• Bonus: Design and simulations in CoventorWare or COMSOL

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Group List – Link in ‘Projects’ in course shell

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BME804/BE8102 - W2021 - Course content summary
Topic Week Topics Remarks
#1 1 Intro to BioMEMS
#2 2-3 Silicon microfabrication I & II
#3 4 Soft lithography and polymers Groups and project choices due
#4 5-6 Microfluidics I & II
Exam 7 Mid-term exam on topics in weeks 1-6
#5 8 Sensor principles and microsensors
#6 9 Microactuators
#7 10 Micro total analytical systems
#8 11 Emerging technologies
#9 12 System integration Project reports due (BME804)
#10 13 Project Presentations Project presentations (BME804)
Project reports due (BE8102)
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BME804/BE8102 W2021
Lecture 1
Introduction to BioMEMS

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BioMEMS - Definitions
• Biomedical Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems

• At least one dimension between 100 nm to 100 mm

• Integration of electrical and mechanical components on a single chip

• Biomedical applications: microsensors, lab-on-chip, micro total analysis systems,

DNA microarrays, drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, tissue cultures

• Materials: Silicon, glass, polymers

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 10mm
Microscale

MEMS
of magnitude
5 orders

BME804/BE8102 | W2022 100nm

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The ‘nano’ Guitar

• Developed at Cornell Uni in 1997!

• The guitar has six strings, each
string about 50 nanometers wide,
the width of about 100 atoms
• The strings resonate at inaudible
frequencies when plucked

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/07/worlds-smallest-silicon-mechanical-devices-are-made-cornell

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Tiniest Gingerbread House

McMaster University

https://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/news/mcmaster-research-engineer-creates-worlds-tiniest-gingerbread-house

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BioMEMS Applications

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BioMEMS Applications

▪ Laboratory Diagnostic Tools:

• Microsensors & Microactuators
• Lab-on-a-Chip Devices (LOC)
• Micro Total Analysis Systems (µTAS)
• DNA and Protein Microarrays
▪ Personalized Treatments
▪ Drug Delivery Devices
▪ Tissue Engineering (Tissue Scaffolding Devices)
▪ Minimally Invasive Procedures

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BioMEMS Applications – Lab Diagnostics

• Disease detection & monitoring

• Cancer
• Infectious diseases (COVID-19!)
• Glaucoma
• Heart disease
• Blood, sweat, urine analysis
• Metabolics
• DNA sequencing

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BioMEMS Applications – Personalized Treatments

Patient-specific medicine
• Stem cell differentiation
• Cell cultures and analysis
• Drug discovery
• Tissue engineering and cell-based therapies

Chi H. Cardiology 2015; 131

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BioMEMS Applications – Drug Delivery Systems

Current drug delivery: oral, injection,

perfusion etc..
Passive
BioMEMS:
• Convenient
• Precise release
• Patient-specific
• Implanted or transdermal
• Passive (perfusion) or active (actuator)
Nuxoll Adv Drug Deliv Rev 2013 Active
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BioMEMS Applications – Minimally Invasive Procedures

• Catheters
• Endoscopes
• Microvisualization and
manipulation
• Injectable, insertable devices
• Swallowable capsules
Jung YH. Adv Mater 2020, 32

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Group Activity – Breakout Rooms

- Assign a moderator
- Discuss:
a) Advantages and Challenges of Miniaturization
b) BioMEMS Device Design Considerations
c) BioMEMS applications
- Write down your answers (e.g. word) and send them to me

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Group Activity – Breakout Rooms - Notes

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BME804/BE8102
Course Topics

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Microfabrication

• Microfabrication is the production of devices in the submicron to millimeter range

• Two types of techniques
• Hard fabrication
• Traditional approach used to fabricate microchips
• Soft fabrication
• Techniques include molding, embossing, stamping, casting and array patterning
using polymers and biological substances
• Other soft techniques include polymerization of 3D parts using light, surface
modifications, and hydrogels

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Substrates

• Glass & ceramics

• Polymers
• Silicon
• Biopolymers

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Silicon Microfabrication Silicon wafer

Mask design and ▪ ‘Patterns’ are drawn in an EDA

▪ A physical mask is fabricated with these patterns
fabrication

▪ Substrate is coated with photoresist

Photolitography ▪ Patterns are transferred to the substrate via lithography

▪ Etching – Subtractive process - Design is ‘incised’

through the metal
Micromachining ▪ Deposition - Additive process – Layers are ‘printed’
on the substrate

▪ Equal replica chips are diced

Bonding, dicing, ▪ Bonded to other chips or ‘carrier’
packaging

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“Soft” Fabrication
❑‘Soft’ because makes use of elastometric materials
(viscous and elastic materials)
❑Materials include polymers, environmentally sensitive hydrogels,
biological materials

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Soft Litography ▪ Complementary to silicon
photolithography
▪ Fabrication of a ‘master’
(silicon or glass)
▪ Use master to fabricate device
in soft material (e.g. PDMS)
▪ Embossing

Image credit: Elveflow

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Microfluidics
• Science of fluid behavior in microchannels
• Micrometer structures in lab-on-chip and mTAS devices:
Micro-
• Channels
• Filters
• Valves
• Pumps
• Needles
• Reservoirs and chambers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjyM8sNplm4&fe
ature=youtu.be

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Microfluidics
Single-cell screening using dual microvalves – Chen Lab on a Chip, Issue 7 Vol 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HruOGo86ELw&feature=emb_imp_woyt
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Microfluidics: Lab-on-a-chip & Organs-on-chip

Weltin A. Lab chip 2014, 14, 138

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Microfluidics: Lung-on-a-chip

Huh et al. Reconstituting Organ-Level Lung Functions on a Chip. Science 328 (2010)

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Microsensors & Biosensors
▪ Sensors convert one form ▪ Many applications in medicine
of energy to another ▪ Temperature
▪ Blood pressure
▪ Thermal
▪ Oximetry
▪ Radiation ▪ Spirometry
▪ Mechanical
▪ Flow
▪ Magnetic

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Biosensors

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Microactuators & Drug Delivery Systems

Sutradhar KB et al. Drug Deliv 23 (2016)

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Micro Total Analysis System (mTAS), DNA Sequencing,
Proteomics
• DNA and protein microarrays are chips used to:
• Study the interactions and activities of protein & DNA
• Determine function (mechanisms of replication,
• Synthesis, gene expression, etc)
• Track large number of proteins or DNA in parallel
• Fast and low-cost screening of numerous genetic
traits

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 System Integration
▪ Lab-on-a -chip/μTAS
▪ Interconnections
▪ Biocompatibility with specimen
▪ Reagent addition and waste removal.
▪ Other BioMEMS/MEMS devices
▪ Sensors and actuators.
▪ Point-of-care and human interface.
▪ Implanted devices
▪ A device surgically introduced into the
human body
▪ Biocompatibility with the body.
▪ Power and wireless communication.
Velten, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ADVANCED PACKAGING, 28, 2005

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Emerging BioMEMS Technologies

• Nanotransducers
• 3D cell culture scaffolds
• Body-on-a-chip
• Energy-harvesters
• Nanorobots
• CMOS-MEMS

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Recap
• Course overview
• BioMEMS definitions
• BioMEMS applications
• Advantages and design challenges (discussion)

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