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Extending semiconductor microfabrication technologies beyond integrated circuits has led to the development of arrays of micron-sized electrochemical sensors for use as minimally invasive diagnostic probes to sample a patient’s blood or interstitial cellular fluid. By functionalizing the tips of these microneedles with antibodies, enzymes, and other biological receptors, electrochemical measurement techniques can be combined with well-defined immunoassay chemistry to detect a range of biologically important species, including carbohydrates, electrolytes, lipids, enzymes, toxins, proteins, viruses, and bacteria. This activity received a 2007 R&D 100 award. (1700) ST&E
The Quadrature Digital Waveform Synthesizer (QDWS) Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) supports a Center 1700/5300 partnership to miniaturize the transmit/receive (T/R) module in the MesaSAR synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. The QDWS is a drop-in replacement for a XILINX Virtex II Field Programmable Gate Array in the MiniSAR, which reduces both the size and power of the T/R module. The QDWS ASIC was fabricated with first-pass success in IBM’s 130nm Trusted Foundry and demonstrates Sandia’s ability to provide commercial leading-edge integrated circuit solutions. (1700, 5300) ST&E
Microphotonic thermal detectors could achieve uncooled sensitivity and noise performance in the long-wave infrared region approaching that of cooled photon detectors. The first microphotonic thermal detectors have been fabricated in Sandia’s MESA facility. The devices detect the change in optical resonance frequency of a suspended silicon-nitride microphotonic resonator on illumination with one watt of 10.6-m radiation from a CO2 laser. The silicon nitride resonator absorbs the infrared (IR) radiation, inducing a change in resonance via the thermo-optic effect and a resulting change in transmission of a near-IR laser interrogating the microphotonic resonator. (1700) ST&E