Creating the Nanogate for Experimental Verification and Development of Flow and Particle Behavior in Sub-Micron Channels

Nanogate是一种创建和精确保持纳米级通道开口的机制。 这是通过在一端锚定悬臂梁，然后围绕支点表面枢转来实现的;这在梁和砧之间产生开口。 作为美国国家科学基金会探索性研究资助的一部分，一个原型是从简单的机械加工零件。 在原型中，围绕15 mm直径的砧座枢转的50 mm硅晶片的1微米边缘位移导致50 nm的间隙开口。 目前制造了具有10 nm表面光洁度的金刚石车削镀镍铝结构用于测试;新设计产生的小环形间隙将允许将气体流速控制在1 e-12摩尔/秒的量级。 这项研究将进一步发展Nanogate机制，并使用它来精确计量分子流，并研究这种流动的物理。这项工作将产生一类新的仪器工具，这将使与非常小的间隙中的流体流动相关的基本物理现象的基础实验成为可能。 可以回答的问题的例子是：（1）当一个单一的层被拉开，以创建力/位移数据时，分子是如何表现的？和 (2)为什么当差距变小时，表观粘度增加？当一种流体推动另一种流体时，边界如何表现？ 对这些问题的回答和建议开发的使能仪器将对生命科学等高技术重要性领域产生深远影响，特别是生物物理学和生物化学，能源处理系统，如微型发动机和微型泵，以及新的，更准确的计量/校准程序。

The Nanogate is a mechanism that creates and precisely maintains nano-meter level channel openings. This is accomplished by anchoring a cantilever beam at one end, then pivoting about a fulcrum surface; this creates an opening between the beam and an anvil. As part of an NSF exploratory research grant, a prototype was constructed from simply machined parts. In the prototype, 1 micron edge displacement of a 50mm silicon wafer pivoted abound a 15mm diameter anvil resulted in a 50nm gap opening. A diamond turned Nickel plated aluminum structure with 10nm surface finish is currently made for testing; the resulting small annular gap from the new design will allow control of gas flow rates on the order of 1e-12 moles/sec. This research will further develop the Nanogate mechanism and use it to precisely meter molecular flows and study the physics of such flows.This work will result in a new class of instrumentation tools which will enable fundamental experimentation of basic physical phenomena related to fluid flow in very small gaps. Examples of questions that may be answered are: (1)How do molecules behave when a single layer is pulled apart to create force/displacement data? and (2) Why does apparent viscosity increase when the gap gets smaller and how does the boundary behave when one fluid pushes another? The answers to these questions and the enabling instrumentation that are proposed to be developed will have profound influence on areas of high technological importance such as the life sciences, in particular biophysics and biochemistry, energy handling systems such as microengines and micropumps, and new, more accurate metrology/calibration procedures.