Abstract GeSiM

NILindustrialday, March 10-11 2016 in Vienna /AT

Title: Platform for the automated contact printing and nano-imprint lithography process

Authors: Jian He, Frank Baudisch, Frank-Ullrich Gast, Ulrich Seifert, Daniel Seifert, Steffen Howitz

GeSiM mbH, Bautzner Landstr. 45, 01454 Radeberg, Germany

GeSiM’s platform for 2D/3D µCP and NIL currently includes three product lines, one semiautomatic device and two fully automatic contact printers. The key component of these contact printing systems, is a so called soft stamp with a freely suspended membrane [1]. The print area of one pattern can be up to 22x22mm² in size. Figure 1 shows the micro contact printer µCP4.1 in the current version. Beside µCP4.1 GeSiM provides the semiautomatic print device PVM-A and the recently developed 2-level contact printer µCP4.2 with an integrated collimator optic. Stamps will be described that allow the moulding of microstructures with high aspect ratio on planar and three-dimensional substrates. One applications for the fully automatic µ-contact printer, µCP4.1, will be presented. Literally the 2D µ-contact print process of octadecanethiol (ODT) to generate self-assembled monolayers (SAM) on substrates coated with Au or Cu. To achieve this, the PDMS-based membrane is soaked in ODT-solution. A spin coater as inking station allows the recurrent inking of the stamp surface containing nanometre features. With each automatic contact print an area of 20x20 mm² is functionalised. After printing, the substrates show a sub-µm ODT pattern, that serves as a mask during the subsequent wet etching or currentless metal deposition. In this way, gold nanostructures or copper nano-conductors can be fabricated (cf. Fig. 2).A second application concerns the automatic manufacturing of 3D micro cavities via UV-NIL technology. The Si master, produced by DRIE etching, is used for the stamp casting process. The soft membrane stamp is suited to imprint 3D micro cavities made from commercial NIL resists. The fully automated sequence of the process will be described. Fig. 3 shows pico-well patterns produced by UV-NIL and used for cell culturing in disposable petri dishs.

References:[1] DPA Nr.: 11 2008 001634.8-51; Prio-Date 25 July 2008; Title (translated): Method and equipment for the transfer of micro and nanostructures via contact printing[2] N. Zurgil et al.: Donut-shaped chambers for analysis of biochemical processes at the cellular andsubcellular levels.Lab Chip, 2014, 14, 2226-2239

Fig.1: Microcontact printer, µCP4.1

Fig.2: Sub-µm Cu conductors, fabricated by 2D-µCP of ODTand galvanic deposition

Fig.3 : Formation of spheroids of MCF7 cells in picowells [2]

800 nm1µm