DTU Nanotech, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
Lab Chip. 2012 Jan 21;12(2):262-7. doi: 10.1039/c1lc20689c. Epub 2011 Nov 14.
We present a simple and cheap method for fabrication of silica nanofluidic devices for single-molecule studies. By imprinting sol-gel materials with a multi-level stamp comprising micro- and nanofeatures, channels of different depth are produced in a single process step. Calcination of the imprinted hybrid sol-gel material produces purely inorganic silica, which has very low autofluorescence and can be fusion bonded to a glass lid. Compared to top-down processing of fused silica or silicon substrates, imprint of sol-gel silica enables fabrication of high-quality nanofluidic devices without expensive high-vacuum lithography and etching techniques. The applicability of the fabricated device for single-molecule studies is demonstrated by measuring the extension of DNA molecules of different lengths confined in the nanochannels.
我们提出了一种简单而廉价的方法来制造用于单分子研究的二氧化硅纳米流控器件。通过用包含微纳特征的多级模具对溶胶-凝胶材料进行压印，可以在单个工艺步骤中产生不同深度的通道。所印模的混合溶胶-凝胶材料经过煅烧后会产生纯无机的二氧化硅，其具有非常低的自发荧光，并且可以与玻璃盖融合键合。与熔融石英或硅衬底的自上而下加工相比，溶胶-凝胶二氧化硅的压印可以制造出高质量的纳米流控器件，而无需昂贵的高真空光刻和蚀刻技术。通过测量不同长度的 DNA 分子在纳米通道中的伸展，证明了所制造的器件在单分子研究中的适用性。
