Home > News > A Shortcut to Designer Nanostructures
January 27th, 2011
A Shortcut to Designer Nanostructures
Abstract:
A new nanolithography method could bring down the costs of making experimental computer chips for electronics research and arrays of biomolecules for cell biology. The method makes it possible to deposit fine patterns of materials, or carve them away, using large arrays of silicon pens sitting on springs; it combines the ability to pattern arbitrary designs that have nanoscale features with the ability to work quickly and over relatively large areas.
For the past decade, Chad Mirkin, professor of chemistry at Northwestern University, has been working on ways to reduce the cost and time needed for nanoscale manufacturing. Mirkin invented dip-pen lithography in 1999; in 2008, he developed a more practical approach using polymer pens instead of microscope tips.
Now Mirkin has developed an array that works in a similar way but can create much smaller features. When pushed over a surface using a scanning-probe microscope, the new arrays—made of hard silicon tips attached to a springy polymer backing—can either deposit molecules to make nanostructures, or act like tiny electric chisels, carving material away. It's this combination of the hard, fine silicon tip with the give allowed by the underlying polymer layer that enables higher resolution. Mirkin calls the method "hard-tip, soft-spring lithography."
Source:
technologyreview.com
Bookmark:
| Related News Press |
News and information
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Possible Futures
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
With VECSELs towards the quantum internet Fraunhofer: IAF achieves record output power with VECSEL for quantum frequency converters April 5th, 2024
Academic/Education
Rice University launches Rice Synthetic Biology Institute to improve lives January 12th, 2024
Multi-institution, $4.6 million NSF grant to fund nanotechnology training September 9th, 2022
Chip Technology
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Utilizing palladium for addressing contact issues of buried oxide thin film transistors April 5th, 2024
HKUST researchers develop new integration technique for efficient coupling of III-V and silicon February 16th, 2024
Memory Technology
Utilizing palladium for addressing contact issues of buried oxide thin film transistors April 5th, 2024
Interdisciplinary: Rice team tackles the future of semiconductors Multiferroics could be the key to ultralow-energy computing October 6th, 2023
Researchers discover materials exhibiting huge magnetoresistance June 9th, 2023
Nanoelectronics
Interdisciplinary: Rice team tackles the future of semiconductors Multiferroics could be the key to ultralow-energy computing October 6th, 2023
Key element for a scalable quantum computer: Physicists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University demonstrate electron transport on a quantum chip September 23rd, 2022
Reduced power consumption in semiconductor devices September 23rd, 2022
Atomic level deposition to extend Moore’s law and beyond July 15th, 2022
Announcements
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
 |
||
 |
||
| The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
 |
||
|
|
||
| Premium Products | ||
 |
||
|
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
|
|
||