Localized Joule heating and carbonization process optimization of 3D printed polymer structures for lab-on-CMOS applications
Abstract
Use of carbon electrodes integrated with CMOS technology has great promise for lab-on-chip, biomedical, environmental, and industrial applications. One method of developing carbon electrodes is to 3D print polymer nanostructures on a CMOS chip, and use a thermal annealing process to pyrolyze them into carbon at high temperature, approximately 950 °C. Such high temperature is detrimental to the CMOS sensor circuits, causing severe degradation. We present a novel solution of localized Joule heating of these polymer nanostructures to achieve complete carbonization of the electrodes. Both analytical and COMSOL simulations guided the experiments to characterize the carbonization process conditions. Partial carbonization was achieved at 500-600 °C of global temperature, and complete carbonization was achieved by localized Joule heating. Pyrolized nanostructures monolithic samples on a silica wafer were fabricated using standard material processing, such as 2-Photon Polymerization. Pyrolysis was achieved by Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP). Observations using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy demonstrated the feasibility of polymer carbonization within a CMOS compatible temperature window.
Related
- From localized dryout to convective elongated vapor structures: Reynolds number effects on boiling transition in a rectangular mini-channel
- Physics-based logarithmic description of electrostatic field enhancement in hemisphere-on-cylindrical-post structures for high-field applications
- Neural topology optimization of ship structures under propulsion machinery vibrations
- Comment on "The polarization hierarchy for polynomial optimization over convex bodies, with applications to nonnegative matrix rank"
- Design optimization of the inter-electrode structures in DC-RSD
BibTeX
@misc{haque2026localized,
title = {{Localized Joule heating and carbonization process optimization of 3D printed polymer structures for lab-on-CMOS applications}},
author = {Mohammad Aminul Haque and Andalib Nizam and Nickolay Lavrik and Nicole Mcfarlane},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.15238},
eprint = {2610.15238},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15238},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Localized Joule heating and carbonization process optimization of 3D printed polymer structures for lab-on-CMOS applications
AU - Mohammad Aminul Haque
AU - Andalib Nizam
AU - Nickolay Lavrik
AU - Nicole Mcfarlane
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.15238
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15238
AB - Use of carbon electrodes integrated with CMOS technology has great promise for lab-on-chip, biomedical, environmental, and industrial applications. One method of developing carbon electrodes is to 3D print polymer nanostructures on a CMOS chip, and use a thermal annealing process to pyrolyze them into carbon at high temperature, approximately 950 °C. Such high temperature is detrimental to the CMOS sensor circuits, causing severe degradation. We present a novel solution of localized Joule heating of these polymer nanostructures to achieve complete carbonization of the electrodes. Both analytical and COMSOL simulations guided the experiments to characterize the carbonization process conditions. Partial carbonization was achieved at 500-600 °C of global temperature, and complete carbonization was achieved by localized Joule heating. Pyrolized nanostructures monolithic samples on a silica wafer were fabricated using standard material processing, such as 2-Photon Polymerization. Pyrolysis was achieved by Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP). Observations using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy demonstrated the feasibility of polymer carbonization within a CMOS compatible temperature window.
ER -