Interfacial Chemistries for Nanoscale Transfer Printing

TLDR

The authors present a patterning technique that uses self‑assembled monolayers and surface chemistries to guide material transfer from stamp relief features to a substrate. The technique is a purely additive contact printing process that achieves nanometer resolution, operates rapidly, and functions at ambient conditions. The method is versatile, enabling single‑layer metal patterns from tens of microns to tens of nanometers and single‑step fabrication of metal/dielectric/metal multilayer capacitors on plastic substrates.

Abstract

We describe a patterning technique that uses self-assembled monolayers and other surface chemistries for guiding the transfer of material from relief features on a stamp to a substrate. This purely additive contact printing technique is capable of nanometer resolution. Pattern transfer is fast and it occurs at ambient conditions. We illustrate the versatility of this method by printing single-layer metal patterns with feature sizes from a few tens of microns to a few tens of nanometers. We also demonstrate its use for patterning, in a single step, metal/dielectric/metal multilayers for functional thin film capacitors on plastic substrates.