Liquid droplet deposition through a capillary onto a substrate is studied. The application of pressure into the capillary causes a liquid meniscus to form at the outlet. Touching the substrate with the liquid meniscus and subsequent capillary retraction gives liquid deposition on the substrate. Theoretical and experimental studies of the steady liquid bridge structure between the capillary and substrate identified the range of parameters when deposition of small droplets (no blot) can be performed. Experiments revealed that in this range of parameters the size of deposited liquid droplets is less than 10%–15% of inner diameter of the capillary.

Micro/Nanolithography is a creation of micro/nano features on the substrate. This paper proposes a new capillary-based lithography method that is non-invasive to substrate. The application of the pressure from one side of capillary causes the liquid meniscus to form at the capillary outlet. Touching the substrate with the meniscus only causes the liquid deposition on the substrate. The size of deposited liquid droplet is about 10% of inner diameter of the capillary. Glycerol was chosen as a trial liquid of deposition, because the rate of evaporation for glycerol is low in comparison with other liquids. The deposition of glycerol was done in micro-scale. Comparison of theoretical results with experimental data is shown and discussed.