Acquisition of Alignment, Bonding and Hot Embossing Tools for Hybrid Bioelectronic-Nanofluidic Systems

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

This grant provides support for the acquisition of alignment, bonding, and hot embossing tools for hybrid bioelectronic-nanofluidic systems. Combining the hard, solid, inorganic world of the silicon chip with the soft, wet, molecular world of biological systems will unlock an extraordinary potential for scientific advance and societal benefit. The acquisition of wafer alignment, bonding and hot embossing tools will allow a diverse group of scientists and engineers at Arizona State University to work together across traditional disciplines to better understand hybrid bioelectronic-nanofluidic systems and how they can be engineered for a variety of applications. ASU currently has a number of cross-disciplinary programs exploring the interface between electronic and biological/biochemical systems. Examples of the kind of structures coupling wet biology and chemistry to inorganic electronics include microfluidic channels patterned in glass or silicon substrates that are subsequently aligned and bonded to nano-transistor and/or nano-electrode arrays. Biomedical implants such as glucose sensors and neural electrodes already being developed at ASU will also benefit from advanced bonding capabilities, as will non-biological applications such as advanced packaging for micro-electro-mechanical systems and an expanded capability for the MEMS devices themselves. These new tools will advance discovery while promoting training and learning in a number of ways including the NSF-funded Integrative Graduate Education Research and Traineeship (IGERT) program in Optical Biomolecular Devices. The entering group of IGERT students has been working on the design of a nano-robot system, based on moving microtubules on a patterned surface using biological molecular motors. The bonder/aligner tools we are proposing to acquire are ideally suited to the interdisciplinary learning, teaching and research philosophy that underpins the NSF IGERT program. Faculty will run Senior Design Projects through a cleanroom so that undergraduate students from a wide range of Departments gain exposure to these, and other, state-of-the-art processing tools. The bonder/aligner tools play a key role in the fabrication of prototype systems that will be used as demonstrators for any practical technology that emerges. The processing capability provided by this acquisition will be used in ASU outreach programs for teacher training (Arizona Mathematics-Science Technology Education Partnership AM-STEP). Materials produced by the aligner/bonding tools, including hands-on examples of integrated nano-bio-electronic systems, will be made available to teachers and their classrooms, and will be on display at the Arizona Science Center in downtown Phoenix. We shall work with an ASU co-director of the NSF sponsored Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities (WAESO) to further recruit talented under-represented minorities.