Fabrication of an On-Chip Nanorobot Integrating Functional Nanomaterials for Single-Cell Punctures

Cell manipulations and cell surgeries are key techniques in biotechnology today. Micro/nanorobots integrated on a microfluidic chip (on-chip robot) are a promising technology for cell manipulations and cell surgeries because of their operator skill independency and robustness for external environments. These features enable high-throughput cell manipulations and cell surgeries on a microfluidic chip. However, it is difficult to apply previous on-chip robots for small cells of order ≈ 10 \bm μ m because the manipulation or surgery probes of those robots are a few micrometers in size. This size has been restricted by their fabrication, employing a standard mask lithography process. We fabricated on-chip robots of nanometer size by femtosecond laser exposure (nanorobots). The processing resolutions were 270 nm (linewidth) and 600 nm (thickness). Furthermore, our fabrication technique enabled the nanorobot to have a hybrid structure integrating functional nanomaterials (hybrid nanorobot). By integrating the various functional nanomaterials on the nanorobot, we can create a new function for the nanorobot. In this study, we fabricated a hybrid nanorobot with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of high photothermal efficiency. We demonstrated a single-cell puncture with this nanorobot by irradiating the CNTs with an infrared laser and generating heat at that point. Additionally, we demonstrated an optical manipulation of the nanorobot that makes it possible to perform a cell puncture with high spatial flexibility and high positioning accuracy.