Design and prototype of an automated system for commercially viable production using micro contact printing

Abstract

This dissertation is a documentation of the thought process, its justification and the implementation details that went into prototyping a fully automated system employing Micro Contact Printing, an emerging technique for replication and pattern transfer using soft organic materials, for a nano technology based company in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the summer of 2006. The thesis takes the reader through an extensive literature review of the suite of soft lithography techniques - Near Field Soft Optical Lithography, Replica Molding and Micro contact printing - focused on the critical factors for taking these techniques from research facilities to commercial manufacturing facilities. Micro Contact Printing was studied more extensively than the others. We propose a system level design for viable manufacturing using micro contact printing and also present the implementation details of an automated prototype for the same.