Patterned Deposition of Si3N4 Nanoparticles by Microcontact Printing

Patterned Deposition of Si3N4 Nanoparticles by Microcontact Printing

• Autor
• Jonathan Costa Negri
• Co-autores
• Denise Criado Pereira de Souza , Flávio Leandro de Souza
• Resumo

• An alternative technique for manufacturing electronic devices is soft lithography, which consists in obtaining geometric micropatterns through contact printing between an elastomeric mold and the surface of a substrate. In its early years, chemical modifications were applied to surfaces (called self-assembled monolayers - SAM) through the deposition of alkanethiol on top of gold layers. Today, soft lithography has become a family of micro/nanodeposition techniques, which include: replica molding, microfluidics, capillary micromolding, microtransfer molding, solvent-assisted micromolding, and microcontact printing (uCP). In particular, uCP is of great interest to the surface science and engineering community, which has identified its potential for large-scale device fabrication due to its compatibility with cylindrical roll printing using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomeric stamp, which can produce structures by printing with minimum size and large areas. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

  In this work, aligned Si3N4 nanoparticles were deposited on zinc thin films using the ?CP technique.

  A uCP master mold designed in AutoCAD with lines and squares with dimensions varying between 1-25 ?m in width and 1-100 ?m in separation was manufactured to evaluate the resolution of the areas printed by the ?CP technique. The mold was manufactured on a glass substrate with topographic information recorded on photoresist by lithography.

  Then the master mold was soaked with liquid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to obtain the elastomeric print, transferring the negative topographic information. Finally, the elastomeric print was dipped into a suspension of Si3N4 + H2O (~40 nm / 0.025 wt%) and subjected to contact with a zinc (Zn) thin film substrate. Laser Confocal Microscopy (LSCM) was employed to study the original topographic information on the ?CP master mold and the elastomeric stamp used for the ?CP. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to study the nanoparticle printing parameters by uCP such as nanoparticle application time and pressure.

  The LSCM results demonstrated that the pattern transfer process from the master mold to the print was successfully obtained, with excellent topographic information and reproducibility, maintaining the original geometries. The results of the transfer of Si3N4 nanoparticles by ?CP were analyzed by SEM. It was observed that the best uCP results were obtained for applied pressures between 0.108 - 0.284 Kg/cm² and times between 10 - 15 s, demonstrating good reproducibility of the printed geometric patterns. Geometric patterns of Si3N4 nanoparticles with a lateral resolution of less than 20 ?m were achieved, indicating the possible transfer of geometries by the ?CP technique.

   Acknowledgements: Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano) and Brazilian Center of Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) for photolithography master mold fabrication. Also we would like to thank the Central Experimental Multiusuário (CEM-UFABC) and the laboratory 710 - Bl L Campus Santo André for material characterization.

           

  References
  [1] A. Kumar, G. M. Whitesides. “Features of gold having micrometer to centimeter dimensions can be formed through a combination of stamping with an elastomeric stamp and an alkanethiol "ink" followed by chemical etching”  Applied Physics Letter, 63, 2002-2004, (1993);

  [2] G. M. Whitesides. “Unconventional methods and unconventional materials for microfabrication” 1997 International Conference on Solid-State Sensors and Acturators, 23-24, (1997);

  [3] A. P. Quist, E. Pavlovic, S. Oscarsson. “Recent advances in microcontact printing” Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemestry, 381, 597-600, (2005);

  [4] Y. Xia, D. Qin, G. M. Whitesides. “Microcontact Printing with a Cylindrical Rolling Stamp: A Practical Step Toward Automatic Manufacturing of Patterns with Submicrometel. Sized Features” Advanced Materials, 8, 1015-1017, (1996);

  [5] H. W. Kang et al “Simple ZnO Nanowires Patterned Growth by Microcontact Printing for High Performance Field Emission Device” The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, v. 115, pp.11435-11441, (2011);
  [6] S. Abubakar et al “Fabrication and characterization of nanostructured zinc oxide on printed microcontact electrode for piezoelectric applications” Journal of Materials Research and Technology, v. 9, pp. 15952-15961, (2020);
  [7] S. E. Baek, D. H. Khang “Selective growth of ZnO nanorods by thickness contrast in Indoped ZnO quantum dots seed layer” Nanotechnology, v. 32, pp. 055602, (2021);

• Palavras-chave
• soft lithography, microcontact printing, silicon nitride
• Modalidade
• Pôster
• Área Temática
• Nanociência e Nanotecnologia