title: Rapid sacrificial layer etching for the fabrication of nanochannels with integrated metal electrodes.
abstract: We present a rapid etch method to surface-micromachine nanochannels with integrated noble metal electrodes using a single metal sacrificial layer. The method is based on the galvanic coupling of a chromium sacrificial layer with gold electrodes, which results in a 10-fold increase in etch rate with respect to conventional single metal etching. The etch process is investigated and characterized by optical and electrochemical measurements, leading to a theoretical explanation of the observed etch rate based on mass transport. Using this explanation we derive some generic design rules for nanochannel fabrication employing sacrificial metal etching.
authors.affiliation: BIOS, the Lab-on-a-chip Group, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wouter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sparreboom
authors.forename: Jan C T
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Eijkel
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bomer
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van den Berg
mesh_terms: D004566:Electrodes; D008670:Metals; D036103:Nanotechnology
chemical_list: D008670:Metals