Bio-property mapping system with functional nano-probes ½The functional nano probe sensor and biochip system for Bio-SPM System

Shirakawabe, Yoshiharu; Nihei, Amiko; Watanabe, Naoya; Shigeno, Masatsugu; Matsuzawa, Osamu; Inoue, Akira; Chinone, Kazuo Japan

The aims of the research project "Functional Nano-Probes for Bio-property Mapping" are as follows; To create new fields of application of Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) by developing nano-probes and the SPM system with arrayed multiple nano-probes to measure weak inter-molecular forces and electrical properties of bio-materials. In developing of functional nano-probes, we have designed by photopolymerizing method the suitable shapes of the tip and cantilever which can be made stably in MEMS process and have completed evaluation of motion characteristics in liquid of the trial nano-probe with a long tip made by MEMS processing. To evaluate performance of measuring large and small interaction force, we have experimentally produced nano-probes possessing various areas of tip top facing toward the specimen. We also have confirmed the method to know the exact shape of the top of tip in which a mirror image of the probe shape is acquired by scanning a sharp projections in the substrate surface.
In development of system using nano-probe we have produced a trial specimen vessel equipped with the temperature control unit and have confirmed it can be applied to observing bio-cells in actual culture solution and to detecting the effect of environmental changes on them. And by improving cantilever holder parts, we have also succeeded in keeping Q-value of the probe sufficiently high, which ordinarily falls down remarkably when operated in liquid.

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