Nanometer biodevice fabrication by electron beam lithography

A conventional electron beam lithography machine operated at 50 kV is used in this work to fabricate devices and structures for biophysical and molecular electronics applications featuring critical dimensions down to the nanometer region. Such nanostructures are used for deposition and manipulation of organic molecules; fabricated devices include fine pitch self-standing meshes for laser deposition of molecules, a bimetallic miniaturized glucose sensor and nanogaps for molecular trapping and probing. The developed process is described in detail and by means of Monte Carlo simulation, the various electron scattering processes are modelled. Critical issues, such as fabrication of nanogaps with dimension down to 5 nm, are also addressed. (C) 1997 American Vacuum Society.