Nanofabrication & Nanomaterials

Illustration of bottom-up DPN microstructure functionalization

Introduction

Dip Pen Nanolithography® (DPN®) is adept at writing a wide range of feature sizes to existing surfaces in “bottom-up” nanofabrication applications or delivering etch resists in “top-down” lithography applications. Since DPN is a maskless technique that does not require a clean room or master stamp, new patterns can be designed, deposited, and characterized at a fraction of the cost and time investment required for mask-based lithography. DPN techniques have proven to be especially useful for nanoscale “rapid prototyping” situations - when a range of geometries must be precisely and systematically varied in order to discover the optimum design (for metamaterials, diffraction gratings, etc.) or the desired response (cell polarization, directed self-assembly of CNTs, etc).

Problems, Challenges & Un-Meet Needs

AFM topographic images of split-ring resonator structures fabricated using top-down DPN

Conventional nanofabrication techniques typically involve multiple steps and require different instruments for lithography, etching, deposition and characterization phases. As a result, some nanofabrication processes are prohibitively costly or difficult to implement using traditional techniques and equipment. In addition, the patterning of nano and microscale structures using conventional mask-based lithography techniques consumes significant time and money with each “master” pattern created and often requires access to a clean room. An important feature of DPN is its ability to register to an existing nanopattern or nanostructure and create complex multi-component materials; this capability is often difficult and costly for traditional micro and nanoscale techniques to achieve.

Benefits of DPN

Benefits of using DPN for “bottom-up” and “top-down” lithography applications include:

Material manipulation at both nano and sub-10 micron scales: print features sizes from 50 nm up to 10 microns
Flexible, rapid fabrication: design and create new patterns in less than an hour without a master
Materials deposition at addressable locations: pattern multiple materials to a single or multiple locations with nanoscale repeatability and resolution
Scalable patterning: use arrays of DPN “pen” tips to quickly fabricate with single or multiple materials

DPN "pen" tip array printing multiple patterns using (left image) one molecular printing material and (right image) many different liquid printing materials

Applications

DPN-based “bottom-up” and “top-down” patterning have proven to be valuable fabrication techniques for many markets (including energy, catalysis, advanced materials, and environmental science) in multiple applications, including:

Directly fabricating nanoparticles, depositing catalytic materials (e.g to seed carbon nanotube growth), and creating semiconducting nanowires
Directly depositing etch resist materials to fabricate graphene electrodes with the aid of DPN’s high resolution imaging and integrated lithography features
Design and iteration of nanodevices by being able to rapidly prototype 100s to 1000s of different structures
Creating nanophotonic, optical structures, lipid diffraction gratings, biomimetic structures, and plasmonic structures by leveraging DPN’s ability to fabricate features, cavities and devices in 3D
Directing the self-assembly of nanoparticles, nanowires, carbon nanotubes and polymers using nanoscale chemical templates created by DPN
Creating complex patterns of alkanethiols, with specifically tailored hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions, on large areas of gold surfaces
Developing nanolenses, photocurable etch resists, and conductive polymer devices with the unique ability of DPN to nanopattern polymers

Application Notes

Metamaterial Structure Fabrication Using DPN
Micropatterning of UV Curable Polymer
Silane Patterning for Protein Attachment
Fabricating Large Scale Biomolecular Nanoarrays New!
Fabricating Metallic Nanoclusters New!

Application Highlights

DPN-Mediated Chemical Surface Patterning on Graphene
Using DPN for Directed Growth of Carbon Nanotubes New!

Technology Notes

MHA Patterning with 1D Arrays
ODT Patterning with 1D Arrays
Automated Leveling Option for 2D Pen Arrays

Publications/References

Multiscale Directed Assembly of Polymer Blends Using Chemically Functionalized Nanoscale-Patterned Templates, Small 2009, 5, No. 24, 2788–2791, Jason Chiota, John Shearer, Ming Wei, Carol Barry, and Joey Mead

Superparamagnetic Sub-5 nm Fe@C Nanoparticles: Isolation, Structure,Magnetic Properties, and Directed Assembly, NanoLetters 2008 Vol. 8, No. 11, 3761-3765, Yuhuang Wang, Wei Wei, Daniel Maspoch, Jinsong Wu,Vinayak P. Dravid, and Chad A. Mirkin

Carbon Nanotube Monolayer Patterns for Directed Growth of Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Advanced Materials, 2007, 19, 2530-2534, Sung Young Park, Sun Young Park, Seon Namgung, Byeongju Kim, Jiwoon Im, Ji Youn Kim, Kyung Sun, Kyu Back Lee, Jwa-Min Nam, Yongdoo Park, and Seunghun Hong, Seoul National University

Controllable Patterning and CVD Growth of Isolated Carbon Nanotubes with Direct Parallel Writing of Catalyst Using Dip-Pen Nanolithography, Small, 2009, 5, 2523-2527, Irma Kuljanishvili, Dmitriy A. Dikin, Sergey Rozok, Scott Mayle, and Venkat Chandrasekhar

Immobilization of motile bacterial cells via dip-pen nanolithography, Nanotechnology 21 (2010) 235105, Dorjderem Nyamjav, Sergey Rozhok and Richard C Holz, Loyola University-Chicago