Design and analysis of high-speed continuous micro-contact printing

Micro-contact printing ([mu]CP) is a technology that prints directly off a patterned elastomeric stamp by transferring only a molecular monolayer of ink to a surface, providing a low-cost, high resolution and widely applicable method of nano-scale patterning. Roll to roll is recognized as one of the most promising models for high volume micro-contact printing since it offers advantages such as high throughput, convenient material handling and conformal contact propagation. We have designed and built a tool to study the behavior of micro-contact printing in a roll to roll paradigm, with the three fold objective of printing at high speeds, over large areas and obtaining good quality. A speed of as high as 400 feet/min was achieved with good printing quality. This thesis provides details of this roll to roll high speed micro-contact printing technique from mechanical design to system control to final experiment result analysis, with a concentration in system control. We were also able to keep the distortions to as low as 28 microns over an area of 5.8"x5" and maintain dimensional distribution within 1 micron. A proof-of-concept continuous etching tool was also built to match the speed of the print tool.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Shen, Xiao, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David E. Hardt.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46543

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/46543