A nanocontact printing system for sub-100 nm aligned patterning

Though many aspects of contact printing have been explored extensively since its invention, there are still hurdles to overcome for multilayer printing in the nanometer regime. Here we report on an aligned nanocontact printing (nCP) system that has demonstrated a sub-100 nm alignment capability by means of moiré fringes and microspacers. To address issues in the stamp inking, we have devised a microfluidic apparatus based on the gradient capillary force for transport of ink solutions. The nCP system has been tested by printing nucleoside phosphoramidites on a nanopillar arrayed substrate. Although the nCP system was designed primarily for use in the fabrication of high density DNA nanoarrays, it has the potential to be applied to other fields of nanotechnology for nanoscale patterning.