Nanotechnology and Microfabrication

On December 29, 1959, at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society, Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman gave his classic talk entitled There s Plenty of Room at the Bottom (http.7/www.zyvex. com/nanotech/feynman.html). In it, he suggested that ordinary machines could build smaller machines that could build still smaller machines, working step by step down toward the molecular level. To quote, The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom.  

In 2000 the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) expanded the definition of nanotechnology to  

From the perspective of the clinical laboratory, miniaturization has been a long-term trend in clinical diagnostics instrumentation. For example, capillary electrophoresis instruments (see Chapter 5) and mass spectrometers have been implemented on microchips of silicon, glass, or plastic. In actuality, however, these devices are not manufactured on a nanometer scale but rather on a micrometer scale. Consequently, this chapter will be concerned with microminiaturized devices whose key components (1) are approximately 100 micrometers in size, (2) are employed in analytical measurement, and (3) require special forms of fabrication designed for microdevices. Although this chapter does not attempt to discuss submicron or molecular structures at the nanometer scale, it should be noted that applications discussed later in it require only nanoliter (nL) quantities of a sample or deal with individual cells that may have cell volume in the picoHter (pL) to nL range. 

Since these early efforts, the scope of microtechnology has expanded markedly in the early 2000s with developments of applications being driven by the realization of the potential benefit from microtechnology and also from huge investments, particulai ly to support the science of drug develop- 

There are numerous excellent articles, books, editorials, and reviews that cover the topic of microtechnology. A short fist of some of the most relevant for a clinically oriented reader is presented in Table 10-1 however, attention is drawn to three reviews pubhshed in 2002. Authors of 

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To make slender objects for transducing traction forces, as in the case of cantilever force sensors, it is important to have control over the manufacturing dimensions. For this reason, nanotechnology and microfabrication have been used to construct the measurement devices. For example, cantilever beams have been built so thin and slender that although the elastic modulus of the materials are between 1 MPa and 100 GPa, the spring constant of the structure is in the range of 1-100 nN/pm. The structural flexibility allows the beam to deflect a few micrometers under the load of a traction force, which is an amount that is readily measured under a high-powered microscope. 

The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies at Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories (http //cint.lanl.gov) will feature low vibration for sensitive characterization, chemical/biological synthesis labs, and clean rooms for device integration. Sandia will focus on nanomaterials and microfabrication from the existing Integrated Materials Research Laboratory, while Los Alamos will focus on biosciences and nanomaterials. 

Many of the devices that have thus far been envisioned as products of nanotechnology (e.g., nanoscale environmental sensors, information processors. and actuators) cannot be produced by the large-scale microfabrication techniques currently in use. The further development of nanotechnology hinges on the understanding and manipulation of physical laws and processes at the nanometer level, such as electronic, interatomic, and mter-molecular interactions that can be manipulated lu allow efficient assembly of nanostructures. 

Advances in analytical chemistry will be from bringing in techniques from other fields material science, nanotechnology, microfabrication, microelectronics, and, of course, proteomics and genomics. 

A Students entering the field of analytical chemistry need to be open minded. If you are a well-trained analytical chemist, you must not be afraid of touching other fields to solve your problem. There are no boundaries Advances in analytical chemistry will be the result of bringing in techniques from other fields material science, nanotechnology, microfabrication, microelectronics and, of course, proteomics and genomics. Students need to learn to talk to people in other disciplines. 

Biomedical Microdevices—BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology. The Netherlands Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISSN 1387-2176. Interdisciplinary periodical devoted to all aspects of research in the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), microfabrication, and nanotechnology. Contributions on fundamental and applied investigations of the material science, biochemistry, and physics of biomedical microdevices are encouraged. 

FIGURE 6.5 Drift tubes for FAIMS or DMS including the configuration commercialized by Thermo Fisher Scientific (a) with a cylindrical shape (with permission from Thermo Fisher Scientific) the first small planar design commercialized by Sionex, Incorporated (b) (from Miller et al., A novel micro-machined high field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer, Sens. Actuators B 2000 with permission) and the microfabricated, very small structures of the ultraFAlMS (c) manufactured by Owlstone Nanotechnology (from Owlstone White Paper, 2006). 

Madou MJ (2009) Manufacturing techniques for microfabrication and nanotechnology. Taylor Francis, Boca Raton... 

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