Microfabrication/microstructure fabrication

Microfabrication is increasingly central to modern science and technology. Many opportunities in technology derive from the ability to fabricate new types of microstructures or to reconstitute existing structures in down-sized versions. The most obvious examples are in microelectronics. Microstructures should also provide the opportunity to study basic scientific phenomena that occur at small dimensions one example is quantum confinement observed in nanostructures [1]. Although microfabrication has its basis in microelectronics and most research in microfabrication has been focused on microelectronic devices [2], applications in other areas are rapidly emerging. These include systems for microanalysis [3-6], micro-volume reactors [7,8], combinatorial synthesis [9], micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) [10, 11], and optical components [12-14]. 

With the advancement of microfabrication technology to make various kinds of microstructures, microdevices for chemical reactions have been developed. Micro-fabricated devices for chemical reactions are generally called microreactors and they are expected to produce a revolutionary change in chemical synthesis. 

Figure 3.1 A typical process sequence used in microfabricating a 3D microstructure. The fabrication tool used is bulk micromachining.

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