The conventional photolithography of crystalline silicon techniques is limited to two-dimensional and structure scaling. This can be overcome by using laser micromachine, a technique capable of producing three-dimensional structure and simultaneously avoiding the needs for photomasks. In this paper, we report on the use of RapidX-250 excimer laser micromachine with 248 nm KrF to create in-time mask design and assisting in the fabrication of micro-cantilever structure. Three parameters of the laser micromachine used to aid the fabrication of the micro-cantilever have been investigated; namely the pulse rate (i.e. number of laser pulses per second), laser energy and laser beam size. Preliminary results show that the 35 um beam size and 15 mJ energy level is the most effective parameter to structure the desired pattern. The parallel lines spacing of the structure can be reached up to 10 um while cutting, holes drilling and structuring the cantilever using the laser beam can be accomplished to as low as 50 um in dimension.

Biosensor is an analytical device that consists of immobilized biological sensitive materials. When these materials are in contact with certain transducers, the sensor is able to convert biological signal into electrical signal, hence allowing for certain measurement to be conducted. These sensors have the capability to detect certain human traits such as DNA, tissues, enzyme, antibody and antigen. To increase the biosensor performance especially the interaction between the sensor and biological elements, high uniformity and good optical transmittance sensors are strongly important. Therefore, this paper will presents early characterization of biosensors using Zinc Oxide (ZnO) piezoelectric thin film deposited as sensing layer on Silicon substrate. We investigated the thin film surface morphology and optical characterization using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and UV-Visible Spectrophotometer. We found that the surface roughness of the thin film varied from 1.1 nm to 4.5 nm and the grain size increased with the increase of annealing temperature thus provide high surface uniformity that will enhance the sensitivity and specificity of the sensor.

MEMS parallel plate beam actuators can be comprehended within pull-in with the existence of an intermediate dielectric layer, which has a major outcome of the performance of such actuators. In this research, MEMS parallel plate actuator with an intermediate dielectric layer was simulated to study the relationship between pull-in voltage and thickness of the dielectric layer. Higher dielectric thickness gives more regular and predictable behavior, thus variable dielectric thickness was tested with a view to obtaining desired characteristic beyond pull-in. Many MEMS devices operate beyond pull-in, e.g., capacitive switches, zipper varactors, and coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonators. The actuator designed consists of two parallel plate electrodes with a dielectric layer in between, and dielectric layer with varying thickness were simulated using Intellsuite in order to observe pull-in voltage beyond 1µm displacement required