A Review of Nanofluidic Patents

Nanofluidics is a relatively new area of research, generally viewed as the study of the behavior, manipulation, and control of fluids at nanometer (<100 nm) scales. At nanometer scales, fluids exhibit unique physical behaviors which are not present in larger structures. Nanofluidic structures have been successfully applied to technologies including analytical separations and the manipulation of proteins, RNA and DNA. There are increasing numbers of applications emerging, as well as innovative fabrication methods enabling the development of these applications. This review covers some of the recent and significant patents relating to nanofluidic devices and methods. We particularly focus on nanofluidic patents targeted to separate, sense and manipulate biofluids and the presence of macromolecules therein. Moreover, several important fabrication methods are reviewed relating to forming microscale and nanoscale fluidic structures. This study found that a majority of the current nanofluidic patents are intended for bioengineering and biotechnology applications, and none of these patents used gas as a working fluid. To date, the number of nanofluidic patents has been very limited, though it is expected that the nanofluidic area will grow in the near future.