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Fabrication Techniques and Materials for Bio-MEMS

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MEMS and Microfluidics in Healthcare

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 989))

Abstract

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based advanced point-of-care rapid diagnostic solutions with high degree of sensitivity along with high accuracy are required that can remain efficient even after a decrement in the form factor of the sensor. MEMS technology is at the forefront of development of miniaturized biosensor devices in bulk batches that offer a highly efficient, sensitive, accurate, precise and commercial platform. Arranged arrays of MEMS devices can be spatially covered in more than an area of 1000 mm2. Bio-MEMS devices are fabricated by the conventional micromachining techniques employing oxidation, thin film deposition by sputtering, e-beam & thermal evaporation, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Photolithography is applied for patterning of the micrometre sized geometrical shapes, while electron beam lithography (EBL) patterns nanostructures down to few nanometres scale in reference to the nano-electromechanical-systems (NEMS) for advanced bio-detection applications including lab-on-a-chip technology. Bulk micromachining offers high commercially viable technology involving selective removal by etching of the bulk substrate materials that develop MEMS components, such as, cantilevers and beams. Wet or dry etching methods can be employed for the bulk substrate material removal by selective elimination of unmasked areas for the patterning of geometrical shapes and patterns. Faster etch rates are obtained by chemical wet etching while dry etching technique offers fabrication of anisotropic geometrical patterns with high aspect ratio. Lift-off is also a conventional commercial technique that develops patterns on the surface of the material. Stereo-lithography is an advanced 3D fabrication technology that has a commercial orientation focused on ultraviolet (UV) radiation-based curing of the polymer solution for fabrication of high aspect ratio structures in a layer-by-layer approach. Bio-MEMS/NEMS relies on different types of biomaterials, such as, DNA and RNA, that are used as biomimetic materials. The other categories are inorganic (Si, GaAs, Ge, SiC, Si3N4, SiO2 and glass/quartz for biomedical applications) and organic materials (PMMA, SU-8, PDMS,) for use in MEMS/NEMS. Polymers and plastic substrates are more favourable because of ease of micromachining, faster prototyping along with higher mechanical bending characteristics, and low costs. Moreover, optically transparent substrates can be used in optical detection techniques along with being biologically compatible. Paper microfluidics is another special variant of bio-MEMS due to its features of low-cost technology, biodegradable nature along with the normal wicking action. Paper microfluidics has been employed in paper immunoassays and electrophoresis. Microfluidic approaches in reference to bio-MEMS manipulates very small quantities of fluid over the microfabricated substrates and combines electronics for rapid testing device prototypes. There have also been efforts for the fabrication of microchannels in glass and/or fused quartz and other similar types of substrates using ultrafast lasers for microfluidics that combine optical detection techniques as well. This chapter is a concise effort to present an overview of various micro- and nanofabrication technologies for bio-MEM/NEMS device fabrication for sensing platforms. Technical nitty-gritties of photolithography and EBL have been presented in a critical manner along with different materials used in the advanced bio-MEMS/NEMS micro- and nanofabrication. A small portion is also devoted to the description of cleanroom technology including its classifications with a note on international standardization protocols. Apart from this, deposition techniques have also been discoursed in special reference to bio-MEMS/NEMS. Superhydrophobic feature or wetness property and its importance in the bio-MEMS/NEMS based sensing platforms have also been discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. S.S. Jain Subodh P.G. (Autonomous) College, Jaipur, India

    Sudhanshu Dwivedi

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  1. Sudhanshu Dwivedi
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Correspondence to Sudhanshu Dwivedi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Silchar, Assam, India

    Koushik Guha

  2. School of Medical Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Gorachand Dutta

  3. School of Mines and Metallurgy, Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol, West Bengal, India

    Arindam Biswas

  4. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, KL University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

    K. Srinivasa Rao

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Dwivedi, S. (2023). Fabrication Techniques and Materials for Bio-MEMS. In: Guha, K., Dutta, G., Biswas, A., Srinivasa Rao, K. (eds) MEMS and Microfluidics in Healthcare. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 989. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8714-4_6

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