Fabrication of nickel molds using proton beam writing for micro/nano fluidic devices

In this paper, we present the fabrication of micro/nano fluidic devices with the combination of proton beam writing and UV lithography. Proton beam writing was used to generate the fine features with smooth sidewall profiles on ma-N resist, 110 and 600 nm thick. UV lithography is used to fabricate the micron sized feeding channels properly aligned with the nanostructures on ma-P resist. To get a durable mold, we need to transfer the resist structure into a nickel mold. Nickel electroplating and re-electroplating have been carried out to replicate the polymer structure in a nickel mold with the desired geometry, resulting in a durable Ni master mold. Finally it is demonstrated that these Ni molds can be used to make high quality PDMS fluidic channels used for DNA lab on chip experiments.

Graphical abstractPBW & UV lithography have successfully been used to fabricate a dual resist mold for nanofluidic lab on chip devices with smooth and vertical sidewalls. After Ni plating and re-electroplating, we get a nickel stamp with almost the same fidelity as the original resist mold. We have also demonstrated successful DNA observation in PDMS nano-fluidic lab on chip devices down to 800 nm.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide