| In this thesis, fluidic self-assembly techniques are presented that utilize electrophoresis, dielectrophoresis, electrohydrodynamics and related methods for assembling single-crystal silicon devices suspended in a fluid onto a binding site on a heterogeneous substrate. Different model systems were used to develop key aspects of the technology. The assembly of commercially available negatively charged micro-scale polystyrene beads was characterized using interdigitated electrodes. Single-crystal silicon islands with gold/chromium contacts and silicon blocks without the metal contacts were fabricated on bonded & etched-backed silicon-on-insulator (BESOI) wafers. The silicon islands fabricated on a BESOI wafer were functionalized by 2-mercaptoethansulfonic acid sodium salt, 4 nucleotide thiolated-ssDNA. The functionalized islands and non-functionalized blocks were released in DI water and then assembled on a different substrate by electrophoresis or dielectrophoresis and electrodynamics.; Two terminal silicon resistors were fabricated, released in a fluid and assembled on different substrates. Finally three terminal MOSFETs were designed and fabricated on BESOI wafers, successfully released in DI water, and then subsequently assembled on a different substrate at specific binding sites by dielectrophoresis and electrohydrodynamics. Process flow, fabricated challenges, and electrical characteristics of the assembled silicon will be presented and future work will be discussed. |
