Nanolithography with SPMs (Scanning Probe Microscopes) is well known. A recent version, called Dip-Pen Nanolithography, is especially interesting since it permits writing with a variety of molecular “inks”. SPM lithography is too slow for mass production, but multi-tip arrays hold the promise of major speed-ups. We have developed algorithms for massively parallel nanolithography with multi-tip arrays, and shown an expected speed-up linear in the number of tips.
A video simulation of the algorithms at work is available by clicking below. A textbook VLSI circuit defined in CIF (Caltech Intermediate Format) is automatically converted by our software into instructions for writing the circuit with a multi-tip array using Dip-Pen Nanolithography. The tips work cooperatively for producing the desired lines.
Reference: D. J. Arbuckle and A. A. G. Requicha, “Massively parallel scanning probe nanolithography“, 3rd. IEEE Int’l Conf. on Nanotechnology, S. Francisco, CA, August 12-14, 2003.
Download video. This is a .avi file about 5MB long.
