Method and apparatus for accurate, micro-contact printing

US6792856B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Shawn A. Hall · Pleasantville, US
• Ronald W. Nunes · Hopewell Junction, US
• Robert H. Fair · Slate Hill, US
• William Joseph Surovic · Carmel, US
• Istvan Lovas · Mahopac, US
• Robert Scott Emmans · Bethel, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 16, 2002
• Grant date: Sep 21, 2004
• Expiry date: Sep 3, 2022

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G03F7/0002
• WIPO field: Micro-structural and nano-technology
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

Disclosed is a printing apparatus, having a print surface lying in a print plane defined by an imaginary x-axis and y-axis, the print surface having an outward normal pointing in the positive direction along an imaginary z-axis, such that the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis are substantially orthogonal to one another, a lower stamp clamp disposed adjacent to the negative-x edge of the print surface, an upper stamp clamp, moveable in two dimensions in a trajectory plane defined by the x-axis and z-axis, a stamp comprising a flexible material, the stamp having a first end attached to the lower stamp clamp and a second end attached to the upper stamp clamp, such that a cross section of the stamp parallel to the trajectory plane forms an arc extending from an origin point Q on the lower stamp clamp having (x,z) coordinates (0,0) to point E on the upper stamp clamp, this arc being described by the mathematical function &thgr;(s), where s is the curvilinear distance along the arc measured from point Q, and &thgr; is the angle between the print plane and an imaginary line, the imaginary line being tangent to the cross section of the stamp at s, and wherein, during a print operation, the upper …