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

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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.