Fabrication and testing of silicon integrated nanofluidic channels for neurochemical transport

Several neurosensing techniques have been developed to study neurological activity in mammalian brains, though none of these methods fully satisfy the requirements for high-resolution neurochemical sensing. Therefore, to fulfill this need, we have developed a process to build a monolithic neurochemical sampling probe in which the size and spatial resolution can be directly controlled. Moreover, we have developed test benches to characterize the fluidic and chemical transport properties of the device, which is directly related to the temporal resolution. However, upon testing, we discovered that fluid flow is not possible through either of the two devices fabricated thus far, which is in disagreement with our flow simulation results. For the next step, we will build test structures to measure the performance of the nanofluidic channels without probe integration to determine the root cause of this issue. Upon resolving this issue, we will be able to measure the temporal resolution of various integrated probe designs to optimize the performance of our nanofluidic device.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Esters, Ari

Contributors dc:contributor

• Vlasov, Yurii

• Nanofluidics, nanotechnology, microfluidics, microtechnology, silicon, neurotechnology, brain chemistry, neuroscience

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2018 Ari Esters

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/102956

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/102956