Manufacturing of nanochannels with controlled dimensions using protease nanolithography

The feasibility of creating nanometer scale depressions in biological substrates using active enzymes delivered with scanning probe microscopes has been previously demonstrated by us and other groups. Here we present a comprehensive study revealing the dependence of channels dimensions on the parameters of the "writing" process and provide a simple way to precisely control their dimensions. Such nanochannels may be used in nanofluidic biochip applications.