Abstract: Microfluidic devices are disclosed which can be manufactured using surface-micromachining. These devices utilize an electroosmotic force or an electromagnetic field to generate a flow of a fluid in a microchannel that is lined, at least in part, with silicon nitride. Additional electrodes can be provided within or about the microchannel for separating particular constituents in the fluid during the flow based on charge state or magnetic moment. The fluid can also be pressurized in the channel. The present invention has many different applications including electrokinetic pumping, chemical and biochemical analysis (e.g. based on electrophoresis or chromatography), conducting chemical reactions on a microscopic scale, and forming hydraulic actuators.

Abstract: A thin film formation method in accordance with the present invention forms banks (110) where affinity bank layers and non-affinity bank layers are alternately layered by repeating a step of forming an affinity bank layer (111-11n) with a material having affinity for a thin film material solution (130) (such inorganic material as SiO2) and a step of forming a non-affinity bank layer (121-12n) with a material having non-affinity for the thin film material solution (130) (such organic material as resist) one or more times. Finally the thin film material solution (130) is filled between banks by an ink jet method, heat treatment is executed, and a thin film layer (131-13n) is sequentially layered. By these steps, cost required for affinity control can be decreased and forming multi-layer thin films with uniform film thickness becomes possible.