Design and fabrication of electro-thermal microcantilevers for ultrafast molecular sorting and delivery

Maniscalco, Nicholas I.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/14761 Copy

Description

Title

Design and fabrication of electro-thermal microcantilevers for ultrafast molecular sorting and delivery

Author(s)

Maniscalco, Nicholas I.

Issue Date

2010-01-06T17:50:08Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

King, William P.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

King, William P.

Department of Study

Mechanical Sci & Engineering

Discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Microcantilever
• electro-thermal
• electrophoresis
• electrode
• photolithography

Abstract

Improvements to the current state of the art in microfabricated cantilevers are investigated in order to realize enhanced functionality and increased versatility for use in ultrafast electrophoretic molecular sorting and delivery. Design rationale and fabrication process flow are described for six types of electro-thermal microcantilevers. Devices have been tailored for the process of separating mixtures of heterogeneous molecules into discrete detectable bands based on electrophoretic mobility, and delivering them to a conductive substrate using electric fields. Four device types include integrated heating elements capable of warming samples to catalyze reactions or cleaning the device for reuse. Similar devices have been shown to be capable of targeting temperatures between ambient conditions and the melting point of silicon, to within 0.1˚C precision or better. All microcantilevers types are equipped with a highly doped conductive silicon tip capable of interacting with a conductive substrate to deliver molecules under the presence of an electric field. Devices are equipped with additional electrodes to aid in sorting molecules on the surface of the probe end. Two designs contain two legs and one additional sorting electrode while four designs contain three legs and have two sorting electrodes. Devices having two sorting electrodes are designed to be capable of sorting three or more molecular species, a distinctive advancement in the state of the art. A detailed process flow of the fabrication process for all six electro-thermal cantilever designs are explained in detail.

Graduation Semester

2009-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14761

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2009 Nicholas I. Maniscalco

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