Microcontact Printing: Limitations and Achievements

Abstract

Microcontact printing (µCP) offers a simple and low‐cost surface patterning methodology with high versatility and sub‐micrometer accuracy. The process has undergone a spectacular evolution since its invention, improving its capability to form sub‐100 nm SAM patterns of various polar and apolar materials and biomolecules over macroscopic areas. Diverse development lines of µCP are discussed in this work detailing various printing strategies. New printing schemes with improved stamp materials render µCP a reproducible surface‐patterning technique with an increased pattern resolution. New stamp materials and PDMS surface‐treatment methods allow the use of polar molecules as inks. Flat elastomeric surfaces and low‐diffusive inks push the feature sizes to the nanometer range. Chemical and supramolecular interactions between the ink and the substrate increase the applicability of the µCP process.

Sub-Micrometer Patterning Using Soft Lithography

“…The dimensions of the printed pattern are determined by the size of the raised features on the stamp: they can range from several millimeters to below 100 nm, and are typically reproduced at a 1:1 ratio. Microcontact printing (µCP) [8,11,75] has become a method of choice for patterning self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols on gold [21,[76][77][78] and on other coinage metals, including silver [79,80], copper [81,82], palladium [83,84], and platinum [85]. This application takes advantage of the high affinity of the sulfur moiety for noble metals, leading to rapid adsorption of molecules under the formation of a covalent and thermodynamically stable metal-sulfur bond.…”

Contactless Laser-Assisted Patterning of Surfaces for Bio-Adhesive Microarrays

“…However, techniques that require a stamp have certain inherent limitations. One of these limitations is lateral diffusion that has been observed on stamps inked with PEG hydrogel [24], that makes difficult to obtain well defined hydrogel free areas. Thus, fast homogenous micropatterning of large areas is rather limited.…”

Angle resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS) analysis of lanthanum oxide for micro-flexography printing

“…Research by Perl show that µCP can produce fine solid line below 1µm as seen in Figure 1 [4]. This work employed heavy-weight dendritic thioethers as ink and octadecanethiol as backfilling agent.…”