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开发的，它在制造微电子机械和微流体结构中的使用开创了一个新时代，在这个时代，复杂的任务可以由高效的、微型化的器件来完成。然而，当前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非常困难。如果有可能制造出不受目前层层制造方案的限制，而是真正的三维的微器件，那么微器件的潜在应用将以几何级数的方式扩展。我们正在提议开发和利用一套全新的非硅基微制造真正的三维器件的技术。我们的方案利用了多光子吸收(MPA)相互作用的优势，这种相互作用选择性地发生在激光束的紧密聚焦处，以获得高的三维分辨率。该技术首先在不同的空间区域固化和选择性地刻蚀纳米多孔基质，以基于MPA来创建用于微器件的三维模板，然后使用局域化的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来在基质中创建具有亚微米特征尺寸的功能成分。通过这些手段，我们将有可能在一个单一的单片三维设备中集成多种功能。在拟议的三年项目期内，我们将开发基于MPA的技术，以制造广泛的功能流体、电子、光学和机械组件。这些组件将组合在一起制造越来越复杂的三维微型设备，允许在组合合成和筛选候选药物以及低温设备物理等领域实现重要技术任务的小型化。到项目期结束时，我们希望能够将这种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.