A Giant Leap for Nano-Dip Pen Lithography

Northwest University research have just developed a 55,000-nano dip pen litography array which allows them to simultanoiusly place molecular "ink" on a substrate(flat surface) at a rate 55 thousand times faster then before. Yes that is corret, before this breakthrough we were limited to 1 DPL. I can't imagine how far they can scale it. It boggles the mind.

www.physorg.com...

To demonstrate the technique's power, the researchers reproduced the face of Thomas Jefferson from a five-cent coin 55,000 times, which took only 30 minutes. Each identical nickel image is 12 micrometers wide -- about twice the diameter of a red blood cell -- and is made up of 8,773 dots, each 80 nanometers in diameter.

The parallel process paves the way for making DPN competitive with other optical and stamping lithographic methods used for patterning large areas on metal and semiconductor substrates, including silicon wafers. The advantage of DPN, which is a maskless lithography, is that it can be used to deliver many different types of inks simultaneously to a surface in any configuration one desires. Mask-based lithographies and stamping protocols are extremely limited in this regard.

[edit on 29-9-2006 by sardion2000]