Nanoneedle chips and the production thereof

A process for producing a solid nanoneedle chip, comprising the steps of:

• (i) providing a solid support having an interface region;
• (ii) coating a layer of a material on the interface region of the solid support to form nanoshafts wherein the material is selected from the group consisting of silicon oxynitride, tetraethylorthosilicate, wet silicon oxide, dry silicon oxide, chemical silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, aluminum oxide, silicide, barium strontium titanate, lead zirconium tantalate, organic material, metals, metal oxides, conductors, ceramics and polymers;
• (iii) coating photoresist on the layer of the material;
• (iv) performing photolithography to form an array of dots;
• (v) etching the material to transfer the dot patterns onto the solid support;
• (vi) etching the solid support to a predetermined depth to define standing posts;
• (vii) removing the photoresist and material on the standing posts;
• and
• (viii) etching the posts by a chemical solution over a controlled time to form the cone-like or cylinder-shaped solid nanoshafts, wherein the top of each nanoshaft ranges from about 0.1 nm to less than about 1 μm in dimension, the base of each nanoshaft ranges from about 1 nm to less than about 1 μm in dimension, and the height of each nanoshaft is at least three times the dimension of the base.

A process for producing a hollow nanoneedle chip, comprising the steps of:

• (i) providing a solid support having an interface region;
• (ii) coating a layer of a material to form nanoshafts on the interface region of the solid support, wherein the material is selected from the group consisting of silicon oxynitride, tetraethylorthosilicate, wet silicon oxide, dry silicon oxide, chemical silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, aluminum oxide, silicide, barium strontium titanate, lead zirconium tantalate, organic material, metals, metal oxides, conductors, ceramics and polymers;
• (iii) coating photoresist on the layer of the material;
• (iv) performing photolithography to form an array of dots;
• (v) etching the material to transfer the dot patterns onto the solid support;
• (vi) etching solid support to a predetermined depth to define the standing posts;
• (vii) removing the photoresist and material on the posts;
• (viii) growing a conformal film by atomic layer chemical vapor deposition, ultra high vacuum chemical vapor deposition, and displacement deposition to cover the whole solid support;
• (ix) removing the upper layer of the conformal film by chemical mechanical polishing;
• and
• (x) etching the solid support to form the hollow support and nanoshafts wherein the nanoshafts are in a shape of cone-like or cylinder and the top of each nanoshaft ranges from about 0.1 nm to less than about 1 μm in dimension, the base of each nanoshaft ranges from about 1 nm to less than about 1 μm in dimension, and the height of each nanoshaft is at least three times the dimension of the base.