Fabrication of Microfluidic Device by Reactive Ion Etching and Focused Ion Beam Milling

Abstract

Microfluidic devices are technologies that integrate micro- and nano-meter sized structures in a microchannel using a microfabrication technique. In this article, I focused on the fabrication process of our developed microfluidic device which is based on the principle of size exclusion chromatography for DNA separation. Since this device has microfence structures and nanoslit structures in a microchannel, its fabrication process consists of a photolithography and a reactive ion etching for creating the microfence structures and a focused ion beam milling for creating the nanoslit structures. Additionally, I introduced the experimental results of DNA separation using our fabricated microfluidic device. Beyond the research field of analytical chemistry, microfluidic devices have been utilized to other research fields such as rheology for the measurement of viscosity and flow distribution of liquids. I hope that this article will be of interest to the readership in the research field of tribology.