1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a microelectrode of nanoscale and the microelectrode manufactured by means of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the development of the fine processing technology and molecular synthesis technology requires the preparation of devices by using functions of a single molecule or several molecules. The organic molecule is the smallest unit showing a function and has an advantage of enabling the mass production of molecules having various characteristics in units of Avogadro's number by the technology of synthetic chemistry. The molecule is known to have a self-organization structure, that is a characteristic called a self-organization structure on a substrate due to its structure. Further, as shown by the possibility of orientating and orientation-controlling a molecular structure of nanoscale (hereinafter referred to as “nanomolecular structure” or simply as “molecular structure”) depending on the development conditions on the substrate, the surface science has a large background about the molecular structures on the substrate and has therefore a good prospect in the technical application to molecular devices.
In order to manufacture a device directly utilizing such a nanomolecular structure, an electrode having a gap width smaller than the size of this nanomolecular structure (in the present description, such a extremely minute electrode is collectively referred to as “microelectrode”) is required.
For manufacturing a microelectrode, there are two methods referred to as a bottom contact method and a top contact method.
The bottom contact method is a method of manufacturing an electrode structure on a substrate and then developing a molecular structure on the electrode. The top contact method is a method of manufacturing an electrode structure after developing a molecular structure on a substrate. It is reported that the top contact method shows a higher electric contact conductance when both methods are compared to each other (refer to Non-Pat. Document 1). Accordingly, it is a very important issue whether the electrode is manufactured before or after developing the molecular structures. In particular, a nanogap electrode of top contact method having little influence on the formation of nanomolecular structures and having a gap size similar to the nonomolecular structures is useful for a molecular device utilizing molecular structures developed on a flat substrate surface. For a bottom contact method, a step is formed between the electrode and the substrate, causing the deformation of the molecular structure allocated on the electrode. Thus, the original function of a molecule is not demonstrated (refer to
As a method of forming an electrode without using such conditions, a method of manufacturing an electrode (gold electrode) of top contact method by means of transfer is described in Non-Pat. Document 2.
In this method, first, a pattern is formed on one substrate, and then, gold is deposited thereon by means of vapor deposition. On the other substrate, SiO2 is formed, and MPTMS (3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane: made by Aldrich Chemical Co.) is formed thereon as a SAM (self-assembled monolayer). By using the bonding power between S (sulfur) and gold, gold is transferred to the other substrate. In this case, attention must be paid to the possibility of reactions between molecules and chemical substances due to the chemical processing performed on the other substrate for transferring gold as an electrode.
Non-Patent Document 1: Appl. Phys. Lett. 82 (2003) 793
Non-Patent Document 2: J. AM. CHEM. SOC. 2002, 124, 7654-7655
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a good microelectrode without affecting molecules and a microelectrode manufactured by the method.
A method for manufacturing a microelectrode according to an aspect of the present invention characterized by comprising: one of allocating organic molecules or forming an organic molecular layer on a first substrate; applying a release agent onto a desired pattern formed on a second substrate; attaching an electrode material to the release agent; and bonding a surface of the second substrate to which the electrode material is attached and a surface of the first substrate on which the organic molecules are allocated or the organic molecular layer is formed to transfer the electrode material to the first substrate. As a result, an electrode of top contact method can be formed without using processes deteriorating molecules by heat, organic solvents and chemical reactions. And the process of forming the electrode is very simple.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
First, a substrate 1 used as a mold for transferring an electrode (hereinafter, referred to as “first substrate”) and a substrate 4 for being transferred to (hereinafter, referred to as “second substrate”) are manufactured. Then a pattern is formed (molded:
Then, in order to facilitate the transfer of an electrode material to the second substrate 4, a release agent 2 is applied on the formed pattern by spin coat (release agent application:
Then, the surface of the first substrate 1 to which the electrode material 3 is attached and the surface of the second substrate 4 on which the molecule structure is allocated are brought in close contact with each other by applying pressure, transferring the electrode material 3 to the second substrate 4 (transferring:
The electrode material 3 manufactured by the above-described method must satisfy the following conditions:
(a) Not to be oxidized: Since a thin gold layer is formed in the mold and is transferred, it is a necessary condition for the electrode material not to be oxidized.
(b) To have an excellent ductility: In order to realize a transfer of nanosize microelectrode, it is necessary that the electrode material has an excellent ductility and that the metallic electrode is transferred and pressure-bonded to the nanosize irregularities of the substrate.
As the most suitable material satisfying the above-described conditions, gold is most preferable, however, the material is not limited to gold, and, for example, platinum, copper and aluminum may be also used. In addition, by using gold as the electrode material 3, a self-organization layer having a thiol group can enhance the fixity of the electrode on the substrate. Similar reactions are reported for precious metals such as platinum and palladium as well as for copper. However, at present, a reaction between gold and thiol is the most profoundly investigated reaction bonding metal and organic molecular layer to each other.
Using the above-described method, an electrode was actually manufactured. Gold was used as the electrode material 3. More specifically, the preparation method is as follows:
(1) Mold preparation: An Si-substrate was manufactured and an SiO2 layer of 200 nm was formed on the surface of the substrate. A pattern was formed on the SiO2 layer by the electron beam lithography. However, not only electron bean lithography, but also other known semiconductor technologies (etching and others) can be used for forming a pattern.
(2) Release agent application: A release agent 2 (optoolIDSX (release agent concentrate solution): Demnumsolvent (solvent)=1:1000; made by DAIKIN INDUSTRIES, LTD.) was applied to the pattern. At this time, the release agent 2 is preferably applied to the concave and convex portions in
(3) Electrode material attachment: Gold was attached as the electrode material 3 on the release agent 2 of 40 nm by vapor deposition. In attaching the electrode material 3, an attachment method by means of spattering can be employed. However, in order to reduce burrs in transferring the electrode material 3, a method preventing the electrode material 3 from being attached to the side walls of the concave portions (recess portions) of the pattern is preferably employed. Accordingly, as the method of attaching the electrode material 3 to the first substrate 1, an attachment method by means of vapor deposition is preferably employed.
(4) Transfer: In order to transfer the electrode material 3 to the second substrate 4, the attachment surface of the electrode material 3 and the surface on which the molecular structure was allocated are pressure-bonded to each other. The pressure bonding was performed by raising pressure to 10,000N with spending one minute (not only the pressure of 10,000N, but also the pressure in the order of not destructing the molecular structure may be used) and maintaining the pressure for three minutes. In addition, the temperature was a room temperature (25° C.) and the pressure bonding was performed in a low vacuum (in the order of 10−3 Torr) environment so as to suppress the influences of molecules and dust in the air to the maximum extent possible.
(5) Completion: The first substrate 1 and the second substrate 4 were separated gradually from each other with spending one minute so as to transfer the electrode material 3 to the second substrate 4 without defects.
According to the embodiment of the present invention, since the microelectrode formed as described above shows good ohmic characteristics, it can be satisfactorily used as an electrode. In addition, the electrode can be formed without destructing molecular structures. Further, the microelectrode manufactured according to the present embodiment has a extremely small contact resistance, and therefore, a wiring with small power loss can be realized. Accordingly, according to the present invention, a good microelectrode formed can be manufactured by the top contact method. As described above, the microelectrode and the manufacturing method thereof according to the embodiment of the present invention can solve the conventional problem described above. In addition, molecular electronics are going to be applied to a paper-like foldable computer and a new computation system for performing network type information processings as a human brain. The present invention relates to the essential technology supporting all of these molecular devices and the applications thereof include all the devices utilizing molecules. Thus, the present invention has an extremely wide variety of possibilities.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention in the implementation phase.
In the above-described embodiment, a case where one mold is prepared for manufacturing each of the microelectrode is described. The mold is generally disposable, and in the above-described embodiment, a mold must be manufactured from the beginning for each transfer. Therefore, it is preferable to manufacture a template in advance, to transfer the shape of the template to a general polymer material such as a PDMS for mass-producing molds, to apply a release agent to the mold and to perform transfer by means of vapor deposition of gold. Thereby, a lot of molds can be produced from one template cheaply and easily.
In addition, as the first substrate a semiconductor (Si) substrate is provided and molecular structures are allocated after SiO2 has been formed on the surface, however, an oxidized surface of metal may be used. Further, according to the embodiment of the present invention, an electrode can be formed without affecting the molecular structures on the first substrate. Accordingly, as materials to which an electrode is transferred, many substances such as tantalum oxides, sapphire, organic layers (thick film layers), lipid layers, metal oxides, nitrogen oxides, silicon dioxide (SiO2), gallium arsenides (GaASs) and compound semiconductors can be used.
Further, various steps of the invention are included in the above-described embodiment, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed components.
In addition, if several components are deleted from all the components described in the embodiment, the configuration from which several components have been deleted can be extracted as an invention in a case where the problem described in “Background Art” can be solved and the advantage described in “Industrial Applicability” can be obtained.
According to the present invention, a microelectrode having superior characteristics can be formed without deforming and destructing molecular structures.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2004-282564 | Sep 2004 | JP | national |
This is a Continuation Application of PCT Application No. PCT/JP2005/005584, filed Mar. 25, 2005, which was published under PCT Article 21(2) in Japanese. This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-282564, filed Sep. 28, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/JP05/05584 | Mar 2006 | US |
Child | 11692350 | Mar 2007 | US |