A Versatile and Environmentally Friendly Microfabrication Process for Producing Micro-Basin Array for Single Cell Analysis

This paper reports a low-cost and versatile micro-basin array fabrication approach for single mammalian cell and single bacterial analysis. This approach is based on optical lithography, material sputtering, and lift off. The pitch, size, height, thickness, inclination angle and material type of the micro-basins can be adjusted controllably. The whole fabrication process does not require any strong chemical etching process and is environmentally friendly and cost-effective. Finite element analysis was applied to obtain optimal dimensions of micro-basins. Preliminary results show successful isolation of single bacterium within micro-basins. Ongoing work focuses on improving the isolation efficiency through hydrophobic and hydrophilic patterning.