Integration of Ag2Ga nanoneedles on batch fabricated micro-grippers for material property measurement

INTEGRATION OF Ag2Ga NANONEEDLES ON BATCH FABRICATED MICRO-GRIPPERS FOR MATERIAL PROPERTY MEASUREMENT PengXu March 22, 2011 In this thesis self-assembled growth of Ag2Ga nano-needles on batch fabricated micro-grippers are reported. The room temperature growth of Ag2Ga nano-needles have been recently developed as stylus for Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Integration of such nano-needles onto batch fabricated micro-grippers can potentially lead to the development of nano-grippers for nano-manipulation of materials, measurement of electrical properties of nanostructures and finally measurement of electrochemical properties of cells. We explored the growth process of nano-needles on batch fabricated microgrippers. Micro-grippers were first batch fabricated using carbon nanotube/SU8 process at the University of Louisville's clean room facility. Following the gripper fabrication, 20 nm chromium and 100 nm silver were selectively deposited onto the arms of the grippers using shadow masking techniques. Each silver coated arm was selectively dipped onto liquid gallium and retracted for the formation of Ag2Ga eutectic nano-needles at room