Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

In this work, we propose an innovative approach to the fabrication of a complete micro/nano fluidic system, based on direct nanoimprint lithography. The fabricated device consists of nanochannels connected to U-shaped microchannels by triangular tapered inlets, and has four large reservoirs for liquid input. A master silicon stamp with the multilevel structures is fabricated first, and then a negative replica is made, to be used as a stamp for ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL). Afterwards, just one single UV-NIL step is necessary for patterning all the the micro and nanostructures. Furthermore, the devices are made of all-transparent materials, and the method allows flexibility for the type of substrates used. The active material (an inorganic-organic hybrid polymer) used for the fabrication of the device has been carefully chosen, so it has adequate surface properties (inert and hydrophilic) for its direct use for biological applications. Devices having 30 nm wide, 30 nm deep nanochannels have been fabricated, and the successful performance of the fluidic system and the continuity of the nanochannels have been proven by flow tests. © 2011 American Vacuum Society.