Submicron Electrode Gaps Fabricated by Gold Electrodeposition at Interdigitated Electrodes

Abstract

Electrodes with submicron gaps are desired for achieving high amplication redoxcycling sensors. In this contribution we report the use of electrodeposition of gold in order todecrease the inter-electrode spacing at interdigitated electrodes. Using this method submicronspacings can be obtained without expensive techniques such as e-beam lithography or focusedion beam milling. Initially, gold interdigitated electrodes with a nger spacing of 2.5 m wererealized by lift-o processing. Using a commercial gold sulphite bath (ECF64D) and 100 mscurrent pulses of -1.78 A, these gold electrodes were plated with an additional gold layer. Asa result, the inter- electrode spacing, as measured using atomic force microscopy and conven-tional microscopy, was reduced to 0.6 m. The achieved gap spacing is limited by electrodeimperfections resulting from the lift-o process. At these imperfections the electrodes becomeshorted. Additional experiments with wet etched electrodes are expected to yield smaller gapspacings