Fast Easy, Functional Nanostructures

摘要

From system-on-a-chip to smart cards, more functions are being integrated into smaller spaces. Now "smart ink" has been developed by scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque (UNM), headed by Dr. C. Jeffrey Brinker; functional nanostructures are infused into ink, making it possible to print intricate features rapidly with "soft" lithographic techniques such as inkjet printers and micro-pens. When fully realized, this relatively simple technology may be used as a mask-less technique to pattern silicon wafers with photoresist, eliminating lithographic exposures, or to directly deposit low-k dielectric material in intricate patterns.