How to use DPN5000 to do nanofabrication

[ryannd]

Hi,

I have a question about the application of this model. Currently I am thinking of the possibility to do pattern with feature size of 10nm to 20nm. And the material is expected to serve as etching mask of gold film. Is this feasible with this tool?

BTW, where can I get more info about the application of the tool on nanofabraction? what I found is about micro-scale. is there any info and picture for nano-scale demonstration?

Thanks,

[admin]

Thank you for the question,

While writing line widths of 10-20 nm is possible, it is very difficult to accomplish. Writing line widths of 40-100 are much more typical and easy to do. I

f you are writing extremely small features make sure that you are using a very sharp tip (use SEM imaging to be sure).

Also you will get smaller feature sizes if you use good quality mica peeled gold substrates. Make sure you are using the minimum humidity needed to write features and fast tip speeds. The problem with using mica peeled gold is that if you may not be able to etch it as the under the gold is often a layer of epoxy to a glass slide and not a solid support.

You may be able to reduce the final feature size by etching the gold away very carefully but this may take some experimentation.

If you search the literature you can find several examples of nm scale features. Remember that a single line width will typically be 40 nm not an entire feature you have to account for this in your experimental setup.

As an example:
Fabrication of Sub-50-nm Solid-State Nanostructures on the Basis of Dip-Pen Nanolithography
Hua Zhang, Sung-Wook Chung, and Chad A. Mirkin
Nano Letters 2003 Vol. 3 No. 1 43-45

Good luck I hope you are able to make your device,

Al Smetana
Applications and Service Engineer