There is increasing demand from both public and health authorities for low cost, reliable portable health aids, and increasingly sensitive and safer diagnostic equipment.  The trend towards care in the community for an aging population necessitates that the people are well looked after whilst retaining their independence and dignity. New products equipped to measure bodily functions such as blood sugar levels and heart rate, and monitor safe movement around the household and to assist in daily tasks will make it possible for the elderly and infirm to live in their own home for longer. They will also enable busy people to spend less time with household chores.  At the same time there is demand for improved diagnostic systems such as low dose, high resolution X-ray imaging for the detection of cancers and improved accuracy of radiation therapies for the treatment of disease.

Micro and nano technologies have great potential to contribute solutions to these challenges. Such technologies however are expensive and require equipment and skills which are not immediately available to researchers.

This presentation will focus on micro and nano structuring and replication technologies as available for access to companies and researchers in the European Research Infrastructure EUMINAfab www.euminafab.eu. Access to the technologies is free of cost for al researchers from European member and associated states with the ability to publish their results. The IPR belongs to the user, and the work is handled confidentially by the project partners.

Mechanical and laser based technologies offer the possibility of working a wide range of materials. Masters for the production of microfluidic moulds, may have an intended use in drug delivery or diagnostic lab on chip. These masters can then be implemented into injection moulding machines such as the “Billion 2 C injection moulding machine” at CEA-Liten in Grenoble, or the Battenfeld micro-system at TEKNIKER.

The successful integration of sensing molecules such as peptides or quantum dots may lend an essential specificity to the desired product, or the capacity for the use of the device for high throughput screening in the race to discover new drugs.

On a much smaller scale nano-imprint lithography allows the structuring at the nanoscale of masters. These can be used in replication processes such as nono-imprinting.

 When it comes to making small mechanical parts suitable for implants and even dental brackets with a high aesthetic degree can be produced; for these applications again mastermaking machining and lasers based methods can be employed. The mould in turn can be used in Injection moulding and hot embossing or nano imprinting equipment to fabricate small series of components out of biocompatible materials.

Innovative structures with extremely high aspect ratio are now possible using Direct X-ray LIGA technology. An example here which has already been acclaimed is the creation of gratings for high contrast X-ray imaging which enable a significant reduction in the X-ray intensity necessary. 

Above are listed only a few examples however the possibilities to be enabled are almost limitless.  Additionally these technologies are true cross cutting technologies with an equal relevance to application areas such as Energy, ICT, automotive and consumer goods.

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