Proceedings Article | 19 February 2009
KEYWORDS: Scanning probe lithography, Nanostructures, Lithography, Nanolithography, Molecules, Microelectromechanical systems, Optical lithography, Nanofabrication, Silicon, Multiplexing
Precision nanoscale deposition is a fundamental requirement for nanoscience research, development, and commercial
implementation. Dip Pen Nanolithography(R) (DPN) is an inherently additive SPM-based technique which operates
under ambient conditions, making it suitable to deposit a wide range of biological and inorganic materials. This
technique is fundamentally enabled by a portfolio of MEMS devices tailored for microfluidic ink delivery, directed
placement of nanoscale materials via actuated cantilevers, and cm2 tip arrays for high-throughput nanofabrication.
Multiplexed deposition of nanoscale materials is a challenging problem, but we have implemented InkWells(TM) to enable
selective delivery of ink materials to different tips in multiple probe arrays, while preventing cross-contamination.
Active Pens(TM) can take advantage of this, directly place a variety of materials in nanoscale proximity, and do so in a
"clean" fashion since the cantilevers can be manipulated in Z. Further, massively parallel two-dimensional
nanopatterning with DPN is now commercially available via NanoInk's 2D nano PrintArray(TM), making DPN a highthroughput,
flexible and versatile method for precision nanoscale pattern formation. By fabricating 55,000 tip-cantilevers
across a 1 cm2 chip, we leverage the inherent versatility of DPN and demonstrate large area surface coverage, routinely
achieving throughputs of 3×107 μm2 per hour. Further, we have engineered the device to be easy to use, wire-free, and
fully integrated with the NSCRIPTOR's scanner, stage, and sophisticated lithography routines. In this talk we discuss the
methods of operating this commercially available device, and subsequent results showing sub-100 nm feature sizes and
excellent uniformity (standard deviation < 16%). Finally, we will discuss applications enabled by this MEMS portfolio
including: 1) rapidly and flexibly generating nanostructures; 2) chemically directed assembly and 3) directly writing
biological materials.
