NanoEd Resource Portal - Nano Courses: Unconventional Patterning at the Nanoscale, Molding

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A repository of courses and units are available for instructors who want to incorporate NSE into their existing course or desire to create a new course. Each Nanocourse or unit contains an introduction, main concepts, notes, lectures and accompanying homework assignments or in-class activities. All materials on the NanoEd Resource Portal are peer-managed and covered by a creative-commons attribution, non-commercial share-alike type licensing.

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	What Can Electrons Do? - Electron Microscopy J.G. Zheng and Prof. V.P. Dravid Northwestern University, IL, USA

Unconventional Patterning at the Nanoscale »» Main Menu

SOFT LITHOGRAPHY

» Molding - Replica Molding (RM)	» Microcontact Printing and Etching
» Molding - Micromolding in Capillaries (MIMIC)
» Molding - Solvent-Assisted Micromolding (SAMIM)

Molding - Solvent-Assisted Micromolding (SAMIM)

SAMIM is useful for fabricating structures and modifying surface morphologies of polymers. The operational principle of this technique shares characteristics with both embossing and replica molding.

PRINCIPLE:

The key element of SAMIM is wetting of the PDMS mold by a solvent and conformal contact between the elastomer mold and the substrate. The liquid solvent fills the recessed regions on the surface of the PDMS mold in order to minimize the area of the liquid/vapor interface and maximize that of the solid/liquid interface.

MATERIALS:

Patterned PDMS mold
Photoresist coated Si wafers
Ethanol
Sharp scalpel, Razor blade, Glass slides

PROCEDURE: (Click on pictures to view the videos)

*You will need QuickTime Player installed on your computer to view the videos.
Download Player: For Mac | For PC

	Using a fresh blade on your scalpel, cut out a stamp that is patterned with lines.
	Cut the photoresist coated silicon wafer into 4-8 pieces. Remember, the photoresist is sensitive to light!!
	Wet a clean cloth with ethanol and rub the surface of the patterned stamp.
	Immediately place the stamp into contact with the photoresist coated surface.
	Keep the stamp in conformal contact with the surface until the solvent evaporates (2-3 min). Remove the stamp from the surface.
	You should see an even diffraction pattern indicating that you have embossed the surface of the photoresist.

QUESTIONS:

» See the Replica Molding Section.

Authors:
Prof. Teri W. Odom,
Dr. M. Viswanathan and Y. Babayan

Institution:
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL USA

Level:
College and above

In the classroom:
This Course is a video lab manual for hands on fabrication and characterization of materials at the nanoscale. Materials requirements range from simple chemicals, benchtop tools and CDs to necessary access to advanced characterization equipment such as an Scanning Tunneling Microscope.

Northwestern University - Materials Research Institute (MRI) Programs: GSAS GNN IUMRS MWM MWN NCLT