Application of Microplasmas to microelectromechanical systems and bio-microsystems

21世纪，纳米/微技术在高技术产业进步中发挥着与20世纪微电子技术一样不可或缺的作用。近年来，MEMS（微机电系统）在诸如汽车和数字消费电子的工业领域中被认真地实际应用。此外，在称为μTAS（微全分析系统）或μ TAS（芯片实验室）的新兴技术中已经看到了快速的进步，μ TAS是用于化学和/或生化分析的小型化装置的集成系统。我们一直致力于微等离子体技术在MEMS或μTAS等高附加值微系统领域的应用研究，因为我们相信这一策略对微等离子体技术未来的工业成功和科学进步是有希望的。我们的团队开发了用于便携式分析系统的片上微等离子体射流源，并展示了使用Ar/SF_6微等离子体射流的局部和超高速硅片蚀刻。基于这些研究，我们最近开发了一个扫描微等离子体射流刻蚀机（SMPJE）的原型，它是由一个芯片上的微等离子体射流源和数控扫描仪。

In the 21st century, nano/microtechnologies play indispensable roles in the progress of high technology industry as well as microelectronics did in the 20th century. In recent years, MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) are put to practical use in earnest in an industrial field such as automobiles and digital consumer electronics. Moreover, a rapid progress has been seen in the emerging technology called μTAS (micro total analysis system) or LOC (Lab-on-a-chip), which is an integrated system of miniaturized devices for chemical and/or biochemical analysis. We have been engaged in the application study of microplasma technologies to the field of high-value added microsystems such as MEMS or μTAS since we believe this strategy is promising for the future industrial success and scientific progress of microplasma technology.Our group developed on-chip microplasma jet sources for the portable analysis system and have demonstrated localized and ultrahigh-rate silicon wafer etching using Ar/SF_6 microplasma jets. Based on these studies, we recently developed a prototype of the scanning microplasma jet etcher (SMPJE), which is composed of an on-chip microplasma jet source and a numerically controlled scanner.