Fabrication and characterization of CMOS-compatible perforated micromembranes for biomedical applications

We report the optimized wafer-scale fabrication of microporous membranes for applications in the biomedical field such as cell filtration. Existing similar devices can mostly not be integrated on CMOS circuits or mass fabricated. Both is enabled here by the exclusive use of scalable and low temperature microsystems technology methods on silicon wafers. The successfully manufactured devices are characterized with regard to the feasibility of an integrated clogging detection or captured cell counter. The results from electrochemical measurements across the chips match the calculations from a corresponding theoretical model well, verifying the described concept. Further electrical functionalities may thus be integrated into the micromembrane device in the future, equipping it for new applications and allowing a more efficient solution for existing tasks of similar devices.