INJECTION MOLDED MICRO-CANTILEVER AND MEMBRANE SENSOR DEVICES AND PROCESS FOR THEIR FABRICATION

摘要

The microdevice according to the present invention is an element which comprises a body element of a few mm size and a thin membrane or cantilever like element which gains additional functionality by incorporating a micro- or nanopattern (either topography or chemical modification) on one side of the cantilever or membrane like part. The device is fabricated by micro-injection molding with a microfabricated or micromachined mold cavity. By using an additional foil-like mold, functionality is added to the microdevice without major modifications of its shape, outlines and volume. Thus mechanical and optical properties can be modified, simply by adding an additional device/element (an optical diffraction grating), a roughness (for controlling biocell adhesion and growth) and selectivity (for selection by size, shape). Also mechanical performance (stiffness, resonance frequency) can be modified by corrugations in the thin areas of the cantilevers or membranes. Due to the flexibility of the process, modifications of the setup can be done easily with little effort, i.e. without fabricating a new mold. The invention is based on the method for surface patterning of foils.