XYZ on a Chip: Development and Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Microdevices

硅基技术最初是为微电子应用而发展起来的，它在微机电和微流体结构制造中的应用已经进入了一个新时代，在这个新时代里，复杂的任务可以由高效的、小型化的器件来完成。然而，当前这一代硅基技术的一个局限性是，制造具有大量功能层的器件是非常困难的。微器件的潜在应用的数量将扩大geometricallyif它是可能的制造微器件，不受目前的层层制造方案，而是真正的三维。我们建议开发和利用一套全新的技术，真正的三维器件的非硅基微制造。我们的方案利用了多光子吸收（MPA）相互作用的优点，这种相互作用选择性地发生在激光束的紧聚焦处，以获得高的三维分辨率。该技术首先基于MPA在不同的空间区域选择性地固化和蚀刻纳米多孔基质，以产生用于微器件的三维模板，然后使用局部MPA驱动的光沉积和其他MPA驱动的光反应、光化学过程和光物理过程在基质中产生亚微米特征尺寸的功能组件。通过这些手段，将有可能在一个单一的、整体的三维设备中整合各种功能。在拟议的三年项目期间，我们将开发基于MPA的技术，以制造各种功能的流体、电子、光学和机械部件。这些部件将结合起来，制造越来越复杂的三个-尺寸的微型设备，将允许小型化的技术重要的任务领域，如组合合成和筛选候选药物和低温设备物理。到项目期结束时，我们预计能够将这些设备直接集成到硅基微芯片上。

The use of silicon-based technology, originally developed for microelectronics applica-tions, in the fabrication of microelectromechanical and microfluidic structures has usheredin a new era in which complex tasks can be performed by efficient, miniaturized devices.However, one limitation of the current generation of silicon-based technologies is that it isextraordinarily difficult to fabricate devices have a significant number (4) of functionallayers. The number of potential applications of microdevices would expand geometricallyif it were possible to fabricate microdevices that were not constricted by the present layer-by-layer fabrication scheme, but instead were truly three-dimensional.We are proposing to develop and utilize a completely new set of technologies for non-silicon-based microfabrication of true three-dimensional devices. Our scheme takes ad-vantageof multiphoton absorption (MPA) interactions that occur selectively at the tight fo-cusof a laser beam to attain high three-dimensional resolution. The proposed technologybegins with a nanoporous matrix that is solidified and etched selectively in different spatialareas, based on MPA, in order to create the three-dimensional template for a microdevice.Localized MPA-driven photodeposition and other MPA-driven photoreactions, photo-chemicalprocesses and photophysical processes are then used to create functional compo-nentswithin the matrix, with submicron feature sizes. Through these means, it will be pos-sibleto incorporate a wide variety of functionalities in a single, monolithic three-dimensionaldevice.Over the proposed three-year project period, we will develop MPA-based technologiesto make a broad range of functional fluidic, electronic, optical and mechanical components.These components will be combined to fabricate increasingly complex three-dimensionalmicrodevices that will allow for the miniaturization of technologically important tasks inareas such as combinatorial synthesis and screening of drug candidates and low-temperaturedevice physics. By the end of the project period we expect to be able to inte-gratesuch devices directly onto silicon-based microchips.