Micro Fabrication Technique for Three-dimensional Structures based on Localized Electrophoretic Deposition using a Scanning Ion Conductance Microscope

Abstract

Recently, micro fabrication techniques for micro devices such as Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) have attracted attention. As a simple fabrication system, we developed a novel localized electrophoretic deposition using a scanning ion conductance microscope (SICM) with a nanopipette. The nanopipette called as a theta nanopipette is a capillary glass tube which has two channels. One channel was filled with the Au colloidal solution for electrophoretic deposition. The other channel was used for SICM. Using the SICM, it was possible to position the nanopipette tip in the vicinity of a conductive substrate for deposition. After positioning the pipette tip on the substrate, local deposition of the colloidal nanoparticles was realized using the theta nanopipette. We demonstrated fabrication of pillars as three-dimensional structure with high reproducibility. After the dot fabrication, we observed the dots using the SICM with the theta nanopipette.