Abstract
Patterning nanoscale features across macroscopic areas is challenging due to the vast range of length scales that must be addressed. With polymer pen lithography, arrays of thousands of elastomeric pyramidal pens can be used to write features across centimeter-scales, but deformation of the soft pens limits resolution and minimum feature pitch, especially with polymeric inks. Here, we show that by coating polymer pen arrays with a ∼175 nm silica layer, the resulting hard transparent arrays exhibit a force-independent contact area that improves their patterning capability by reducing the minimum feature size (∼40 nm), minimum feature pitch (<200 nm for polymers), and pen to pen variation. With these new arrays, patterns with as many as 5.9 billion features in a 14.5 cm2 area were written using a four hundred thousand pyramid pen array. Furthermore, a new method is demonstrated for patterning macroscopic feature size gradients that vary in feature diameter by a factor of 4. Ultimately, this form of polymer pen lithography allows for patterning with the resolution of dip-pen nanolithography across centimeter scales using simple and inexpensive pen arrays. The high resolution and density afforded by this technique position it as a broad-based discovery tool for the field of nanocombinatorics.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 3144-3148 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | ACS nano |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 22 2016 |
Funding
This material is based upon work supported by the AFOSR Awards FA9550-12-1-0141 and FA9550-12-1-0280, the Air Force Research Laboratory agreement FA8650-15-2-5518, the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE) initiative of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Awards U54CA151880 and U54CA199091. J.L.H. was supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) Program. K.A.B. acknowledges support from the Northwestern University?s International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN). P.C.C. acknowledges support from the Ryan Fellowship and the IIN. This work utilized Northwestern University Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility (NUFAB), which is supported by the State of Illinois and Northwestern University.
Keywords
- atomic force microscopy
- dip-pen nanolithography
- plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
- polydimethylsiloxane
- polymer pen lithography
- scanning probe lithography
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Engineering
- General Physics and Astronomy
- General Materials Science