ABSTRACT
The advent of the semiconductor industry throughout the twentieth century has provided the secondary benet of advanced manufacturing processes including the increased precision of the microfabrication of modern engineering materials such as metals and polymers. Advances in microfabrication techniques including micromachining and photolithography-aided processes such as dry and wet etching, metal deposition, and thin-lm growth have led to the ability to engineer systems and materials with welldened features on the micron and submicron scale. Other more advanced techniques such as electron-beam (e-beam) photolithography and nanomanipulation have enabled the fabrication of structures with nanometer-scale precision. Although initially designed to support the rapid development demands associated with the integrated circuit industry, the application of micro-and nanometer-scale fabrication techniques has demonstrated invaluable utility in the design and development of engineered systems for biological and bioengineering applications.
