Recent progress in soft lithography

The recent research trends in the field of soft lithography, with a focus on trends in research and steps toward commercialization are discussed. It also provides a brief account of efforts to innovate and move certain of these techniques out of the laboratory and into commercial manufacturing settings. The earliest soft-lithography method represents a form of contact printing that uses a high-resolution elastomeric stamp with a chemical ink capable of forming a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on a target substrate. These techniques have achieved widespread use in academic and industrial laboratories around the world for applications in fields ranging from photonics and biotechnology to microfluidics and electronics.