Modification of silicon oxide substrates with functional ultrathin organic films

由硅制成的微电子机械系统(MEMS)领域在过去几年中迅速扩大。这些微型机械传感器应用于许多不同的领域。微机械传感器包括例如压力、力、加速度、扭矩、惯性和流量传感器。这种微机械换能器的市场是巨大的，在最近几年占据了整个MEMS市场的最大份额。在不久的将来，这种情况可能会持续下去。引起这种兴趣的一个原因反映在MEMS有潜力带来重大突破的许多领域。例如，它们将在医疗保健领域发挥越来越重要的作用，例如作为便携式和医院中的患者监测系统(生物MEMS)，以及能源(例如基于MEMS技术的微型燃料电池系统的形式)，这两个领域都被列为当前科学领域的重大挑战。然而，到目前为止，MEMS目前用于小容量或中等容量的应用。阻碍它们被更广泛采用的主要障碍之一是需要保护这些实体的表面不受有害环境影响，如湿度，以确保它们可靠、长期的性能。还希望能够以特定用途的方式对这些实体的表面进行功能化，例如能够提供对蛋白质吸附敏感的表面。尽管MEMS的制造领域已经取得了许多进展，但仍然需要提高对这些表面进行可靠的化学涂层或选择性功能化的能力，因为这通常会影响MEMS的可靠性和性能。该项目将有助于一般的表面化学基础知识，通过在溶液和气相中在二氧化硅表面执行新的反应。这些沉积过程将为氧化硅表面的涂层和功能化开辟全新的途径。目前还没有一种与微结构和MEMS相关的通用和灵活的涂层程序，我们将利用这一程序的潜力来进行灵活的表面改性。成功的气相改性方法的产生对MEMS的应用至关重要，并将导致它们的更快和更广泛的采用，这可能会对医疗保健和能源等领域产生重大的潜在影响。因此，该项目还有助于确保英国在MEMS市场长期发挥重要作用。

The field of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) made of silicon has rapidly expanded over the last few years. These miniature mechanical transducers are used in many different areas. Micromachined mechanical sensors include for example pressure, force, acceleration, torque, inertial, and flow sensors. The market for such micromachined mechanical transducers is huge, accounting for the largest part of the overall MEMS market in the recent past. This is likely to continue in the near future. One reason for this interest is reflected in the many areas where MEMS have the potential to bring significant breakthroughs. They will, for example, play an increasingly important role in the areas of health care, e.g as patient monitoring systems, both portable and in hospitals (bio MEMS), and energy (e.g. in the form of micro fuel cell systems based on MEMS technology), areas which are both on the list of the current grand challenges in science. However, to date MEMS are currently used in low- or medium-volume applications. One of the main obstacles preventing their wider adoption is the need to protect the surfaces of these entities from detrimental environmental influences, such as humidity, to ensure their reliable, long-term performance. There is also a desire to be able to functionalise the surfaces of these entities in an application-specific manner, such as being able to provide a surface which is sensitive to protein adsorption. Despite the many advances that have been made in the field of fabrication of MEMS, there remains a need to improve the ability to reliably chemically coat or selectively functionalise these surfaces as this often affects the reliability and performance of MEMS.The project will contribute to the basic knowledge of surface chemistry in general, with novel reactions performed at silicon oxide surfaces in solution and in the gas phase. These deposition processes should open entirely new avenues for the coating and functionalisation of silicon oxide surfaces. A versatile and flexible coating procedure in connection with microstructures and MEMS is currently not available, and we will harness the potential of this procedure to allow flexible surface modification. The generation of a successful vapour phase modification methodology is pivotal for the application in connection with MEMS and will lead to their faster and wider adoption, which may have significant potential impact on fields such as healthcare and energy. The project therefore also contributes to ensuring that the UK will play a significant role in the MEMS market on a long term scale.