Patent ID: 8158409
Filing Date: 2012-04-17
Classification: B82Y,G01N,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A nanofluidic device comprising a planar wafer, said wafer comprising: a planar transparent dielectric substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface; a metal layer having a thickness of between 30 and 500 nm formed on the top surface of the substrate; a transparent dielectric layer having a thickness of between 1 nm and 50 nm formed on the metal layer; a plurality of parallel nanoslits cut into the metal and transparent dielectric layers in the plane of the substrate to form a nanoslit array, said nanoslits having a width of between 10 nm and 800 nm and spaced between 100 nm and 800 nm apart, and completely penetrating the transparent dielectric and metal layers of the wafer; and a transparent top layer covering the nanoslit array to form a plurality of parallel nanochannels forming a square or rectangular nanochannel array with a surface area of between 1.0 μm wherein: the transparent dielectric substrate forms a bottom lumenal surface of each nanochannel, the metal and transparent dielectric layers form side lumenal surfaces of each nanochannel, and the transparent top layer forms a top lumenal surface of each nanochannel; and each nanochannel comprises a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet.