| Description |
With the capability to separate red blood cells and exosomes, deterministic lateral deisplacement (DLD) has established itself as a great utility in biological sparation applications on both the microscale and nonoscale. Current methods of employing DLD on the nonoscale require electron beam lithography and top-down fabriction methodologies. An alternative bottom-up approach for fabricating DLD-capable particle separation arrays is proposed through the use of block copolymers (BCs) and nanosphere lithography (NSL). A thorough literature review on DLD, BCs, and NSL is conducted to identify potential crossovers between these fields, and design plans for fabricating DLD-capable arrays throught the use of BCs and NSL are subesquently developed. However, fabrication plans us;ing BCs were not implemented due to budget and design limitations. Fabrication of NSL-created DLD arrays is employed in an effort to obtain an empirical validation of theoretical results, though existing limitations in NSL prevent the successful fabrication of DLD-capable arrays. Nonetheless, the development of a DLD fabrication process using NSL methodologies is translated into a full student lab course for students enrolled in ME EN 5050: Micromachining, resulting in the creation of 8 separate 3-hour labs. This enables the future characterization of these novel micro and nanoscale patterning techniques as they pertain to forming DLD-capable microfluidic arrays while simultaneosly exposing students to a diverse set of micromachining techniques through the fabrication process. |
