Wafer scale nano-membranes supported on a silicon microsieve

摘要

A new micromachining method to fabricatewafer scale, atomically smooth nano-membranes isdescribed. The delicate membrane is supported on a robustsilicon microsieve fabricated by plasma etching. Thesupporting sieve is micromachined independently of thenano-membrane, which is later fusion bonded to it. Thetransferred thin-film membrane can be dense, porous orperforated according to the application desired. One of themain application areas for such membranes is in fluidics,where the small thickness and high strength of the supportednano-membranes is a big advantage. The novel methoddescribed enables to easily up-scale and interface micro ornano-membranes to the macro-world