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

Nanogate是一种创建并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，然后绕支点表面枢转来实现的；这在梁和砧座之间创造了一个开口。作为美国国家科学基金会探索性研究拨款的一部分，用简单加工的零件建造了一个原型。在样机中，50 mm硅片在直径15 mm的砧座上转动1微米的边缘位移，就会产生50 nm的间隙开口。目前正在测试一种钻石车削镀镍铝结构，表面光洁度为10 nm；新设计产生的小环形间隙将允许气体流量控制在1e-12摩尔/秒的数量级。这项研究将进一步发展纳米门机制，并将其用于精确测量分子流并研究此类流的物理。这项工作将产生一类新的仪器工具，将使与流体流动有关的基本物理现象能够在非常小的间隙中进行基本实验。可以回答的问题的例子有：(1)当单层被拉开以创建力/位移数据时，分子的行为如何？(2)为什么表观粘度随着间隙变小而增加，以及当一种流体推动另一种流体时，边界表现如何？这些问题的答案和拟议开发的有利仪器将对具有高度技术重要性的领域产生深远影响，例如生命科学，特别是生物物理和生物化学，微型发动机和微型泵等能源处理系统，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.