Soft lithography

In technology, soft lithography refers to a family of techniques for fabricating or replicating structures using "elastomeric stamps, molds, and conformable photomasks" (in the words of Rogers and Nuzzo, p. 50, as cited in "References"). It is called "soft" because it uses elastomeric materials, most notably PDMS. Soft lithography is generally used to construct features measured on the micrometer to nanometer scale. According to Rogers and Nuzzo (2005), development of soft lithography expanded rapidly during the period 1995 to 2005.

Advantages

Soft lithography has some unique advantages over other forms of lithography (such as photolithography and electron beam lithography). They include the following:

• Lower cost than traditional photolithography in mass production
• Well-suited for applications in biotechnology
• Well-suited for applications in plastic electronics
• Well-suited for applications involving large or nonplanar (nonflat) surfaces
• More pattern-transferring methods than traditional lithography techniques (more "ink" options)
• Does not need a photo-reactive surface to create a nanostructure
• Smaller details than photolithography in laboratory settings (~30nm vs ~100 nm). The resolution depends on the mask used and can reach 6 nm^[1].

See also

• Nanolithography
• PDMS stamp
• Micro Contact Printing

References

• Xia, Y.; Whitesides, G. M. (1998). "Soft Lithography". Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 37 (5): 551–575. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1521-3773(19980316)37:5<550::AID-ANIE550>3.0.CO;2-G. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/10004598/ABSTRACT. 
• Xia, Y.; Whitesides, G. M. (1998). "Soft Lithography. In". Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci. 28: 153–184. doi:10.1146/annurev.matsci.28.1.153. 
• Quake, S. R.; Scherer, A. (2000). "From micro- to nanofabrication with soft materials". Science 290 (5496): 1536–1540. doi:10.1126/science.290.5496.1536. PMID 11090344. 
• Rogers, J. A.; Nuzzo, R. G. (2005). "February). Recent progress in soft lithography. In". Materials today 8 (2): 50–56. doi:10.1016/S1369-7021(05)00702-9. 

1. ^ Waldner, Jean-Baptiste (2008). Nanocomputers and Swarm Intelligence. London: ISTE John Wiley & Sons. p. 93. ISBN 1847040020.