Patterned deposition of Materials as Directed by surfactant Distribution on Electrodes

Creating features on the micro and nanoscale is of interest for a wide range of technologies including data storage devices, flat screen displays, and sensors. Currently, attaining such small scales requires expensive instruments (e.g. electron-beam and x-ray) and since these processes are not parallelizable, they are ineffective for mass production. We have developed a new technique which is both cost effective and parallelizable. The process involves using a polymer stamp with micro- or nanometer scale features. Surfactants are used as the "ink" and the features are transferred onto the surface of interest by bringing the stamp in contact with the surface. The next step involves electrodepositing a metal onto the surface. The surfactant acts as a mask preventing certain metals from depositing onto areas patterned containing the surfactant. Other metals deposit preferentially underneath the regions containing the mask. The ability to deposit either under the mask or on the unfunctionalized surface is equivalent to negative and positive resist processes in microfabrication. Additionally, alternating layers of differing materials can be deposited by sequential deposition. Description (Set) Proposed Use (Set) data storage devices, flat screen displays, and sensors

Inventor(s): Pesika, Noshir Sheriar

Type of Offer: Licensing



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