Micrometer to 15 nm Printing of Metallic Inks with Fountain Pen Nanolithography

5 years ago

Micrometer to 15 nm Printing of Metallic Inks with Fountain Pen Nanolithography

Talia Yeshua, Shlomo Magdassi, Michael Layani, Aaron Lewis, Rimma Dekhter, Uwe Huebner

The field of printed electronics is continually trying to reduce the dimensions of the electrical components. Here, a method of printing metallic lines with widths as small as 15 nm and up to a few micrometers using fountain pen nanolithography (FPN) is shown. The FPN technique is based on a bent nanopipette with atomic force feedback that acts similar to a nanopen. The geometry of the nanopen allows for rapid placement accuracy of the printing tip, on any desired location, with the highest of optical sub-micrometer resolution. Using this nanopen, investigations of various inks are undertaken together with instrumental and script-tool development that allows accurate printing of multiple layers. This has led to the printing of conductive lines using inks composed of silver nanoparticles and salt solutions of silver and copper. In addition, it is shown that the method can be applied to substrates of various materials with minimal effect on the dimension of the line. The line widths are varied by using nanopens with different orifices or by tailoring the wetting properties of the ink on the substrate. Metallic interconnections of conducting lines are reported. Metallic inks are printed under ambient conditions with dimensions from micrometers to nanometers using fountain pen nanolithography (FPN). FPN is based on force sensing cantilevered nanopipettes with atomic force microscope feedback. Excellent control is achieved of the parameters affected by tip sample interactions and nanopipette orifice diameters. The printing can also be altered by the wetting properties of the inks and surfaces.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/smll.201702324