Micropatterned lead zirconium titanate thin films

Abstract

Micropatterning of Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 (PZT) thin films with line features as small as 350 nm was demonstrated through capillary molding of organometallic solutions within the continuous channels of an elastomeric mold. Despite the large stresses that develop during the evaporation of the solvent, pyrolysis of the organics, and the densification and crystallization of the inorganic gel, the patterned crystalline PZT films were crack-free and mechanically robust. Flawless regions as large as 1 cm 2 were obtained. The cross-sectional shape of the patterned PZT lines was trapezoidlike. Single perovskite PZT grains that formed during annealing at 600-700°C completely filled the cross-sectional area of the patterned lines. Lead acetate, zirconium propoxide, and titanium isopropoxide were used as the starting materials. Substrates used included silver tape, stainless steel plate, silicon wafer, and platinum-coated silicon wafer.

Patterning titania with the conventional and modified micromolding in capillaries technique from sol–gel and dispersion solutions

“…Similarly, figures 4(c) and (d) show the effects of shrinkage of pit-patterned films. However, in this case the predominant shrinkage takes place in the vertical rather than lateral direction [16,20]. This is because the patterned film is clamped to the substrate in the lateral directions and is free to move vertically.…”

“…To ensure a sufficiently low viscosity, the solids content should remain low. Depending on the material, this results in huge volumetric shrinkage of the patterns during drying and thermal annealing [16,20]. This reduces the fidelity of the resulting patterns.…”

Microchannel Molding: A Soft Lithography-inspired Approach to Micrometer-scale Patterning

“…The PDMS can be used either as a mold to impart patterns via physical confinement of a fluid precursor that dries to form the final structured thin film or as a stamp to directly transfer the material to the target substrate. The confinementbased techniques include microtransfer molding (TM), [2][3][4] micromolding in capillaries (MIMIC), [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and embossing, [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] while microcontact printing (CP) [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] is an example of stamping. Schematic drawings of these techniques are provided in Fig.…”

“…With this approach, the sol-gel infiltrated lengths of 5-10 mm into the channels, consistent with the infiltration distances observed using MIMIC. 12 Once the gel is dry, the excess material around the periphery of the mold can be scraped off with a razor blade, and the PDMS membrane is peeled off of the substrate. CM and MIMIC share the same procedure of placing a pool of sol-gel precursor at the entrance region of the network of capillary channels and using capillary forces to fill the channels.…”

Soft Lithography of Ceramic Patterns

“…[4] Over the last decade, this work has been extended to a number of different systems. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] The resulting patterned ceramics are typically amorphous or polycrystalline.…”