Scanning probe nanoimprint lithography

Fractional repetitive control of nanopositioning stages for tracking high-frequency periodic inputs with nonsynchronized sampling

The repetitive control (RC) has been employed for high-speed tracking control of nanopositioning stages due to its abilities of precisely tracking periodic trajectories and rejecting periodic disturbances. However, in digital implementation, the sampling frequency should be integer multiple of the tracking frequency of the desired periodic trajectory. Otherwise, the rounding error would result in a significant degradation of the tracking performance, especially for the case of high input frequencies. To mitigate this rounding effect, the fractional repetitive control (FRC) technique is introduced to control the nanopositioning stage so as to precisely track high-frequency periodic inputs without imposing constraints on the sampling frequency of the digital control system. The complete procedure of controller design and implementation is presented. The techniques to deal with the problems of non-minimum phase system and fractional delay points number are described in detail. The proposed FRC is plugged into the proportional-integral control, and implemented on a custom-built piezo-actuated nanopositioning stage. Validation experiments are conducted, and the results show that the tracking errors caused by the rounding effect in the traditional RC approach are almost completely eliminated, when tracking sinusoidal waveforms with frequencies from 1000 Hz to 1587.3 Hz under the sampling frequency of 50 kHz, where the fractional parts being rounded vary from 0 to 0.5.

SPM nanolithography of hydroxy-silicates

Bio-nanopatterning of surfaces is becoming a crucial technique with applications ranging from molecular and cell biology to medicine. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is one of the most useful tools for nanopatterning of flat surfaces. However, these patterns are usually built on homogeneous surfaces and require chemical functionalization to ensure specific affinity. Layered magnesium-aluminum hydroxide-silicates have already shown unique self-assembly properties on DNA molecules, due to their peculiar crystal chemistry based on alternating positive and negative crystal layers. However, patterns on these surfaces tend to be randomly organized. Here we show etching and oxidation at the nanometer scale of magnesium-aluminum hydroxide-silicates using the same SPM probe for the creation of organized nanopatterns. In particular, it is possible to produce three-dimensional structures in a reproducible way, with a depth resolution of 0.4 nm, lateral resolution of tens of nm, and a speed of about 10 μm s(-1). We report, as an example, the construction of an atomically flat charged pattern, designed to guide DNA deposition along predetermined directions without the need of any chemical functionalization of the surface.

Micro- and nanopatterning of inorganic and polymeric substrates by indentation lithography

This paper describes the use of a nanoindenter, equipped with a diamond tip, to form patterns of indentations on planar substrates (epoxy, silicon, and SiO(2)). The process is called "Indentation Lithography" (IndL). The indentations have the form of pits and furrows, whose cross-sectional profiles are determined by the shapes of the diamond indenters, and whose dimensions are determined by the applied load and hardness of the substrate. IndL makes it possible to indent hard materials, to produce patterns with multiple levels of relief by changing the loading force, and to control the profiles of the indentations by using indenters with different shapes. This paper also demonstrates the transfer of indented patterns to elastomeric PDMS stamps for soft lithography, and to thin films of evaporated gold or silver. Stripping an evaporated film from an indented template produces patterns of gold or silver pyramids, whose tips concentrate electric fields. Patterns produced by IndL can thus be used as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and for other plasmonic applications.