title: Microchannel refill: a new method for fabricating 2D nanochannels in polymer substrates.
abstract: In this paper, we present a new approach that is capable of fabricating nanochannels in a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate. This method, which we call microchannel refill (MR), utilizes the refilling of glassy thermoplastics under thermal compression to reduce a microscopic channel to a nanochannel. It only has two main steps. First, a microchannel is fabricated in a PMMA substrate using normal hot embossing. Second, the microchannel is compressed under a certain temperature and pressure to obtain a nanochannel. We show that a nanochannel with a width as small as 132 nm (with a depth of 85 nm) can be easily produced by choosing the appropriate compression temperature, compression pressure, original microchannel width and original microchannel aspect ratio. Compared with most current nanochannel fabrication methods, MR is a quick, simple and cost-effective way to produce nanochannels in polymer substrates.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Micro/Nano Technology and System of Liaoning Province, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Jing-min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ya-jie
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kai-ping
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Li-ding
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Wang