Biochemical IC chips fabricated by hybrid microstereolithography

The world's first microstereolithography named "IH process" was developed by Ikuta et al. in 1992. Several types of micro stereo lithography including Hybrid-IH process, Super-IH process and Two-photon IH process, have been also developed. Three-dimensional (3D) resolution has reached to 140 nm in the two-photon IH process. The super-IH process and the two-photon process enable direct writing of movable micromechanisms without assembling process or sacrificial layer technique. The hybrid-IH process provides various types of composite devices with other functional elements such as actuators and sensors. These IH processes can be widely used for making polymeric microdevices. We have applied these techniques to create new micro chemical device named "Biochemical IC Chip" proposed by Ikuta et al. in 1994. IH process enables to make the biochemical IC chip including real 3D micro fluidic channels. Various kinds of Biochemical IC chip such as micro pumps, switching valves, reactors, concentrators, have already been fabricated. In chip cell-free protein synthesis has been demonstrated by using biochemical IC chips. The biochemical IC chips will open new bioscience and medicine based on innovative technology. In this paper, we introduce several types of IH process and its application to biochemical IC chips.