The smaller components become, the more difficult it is to
create patterns in an economical and reproducible way, according to an
interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers who, using sound waves, can
place nanowires in repeatable patterns for potential use in a variety of
sensors, optoelectronics and nanoscale circuits.
"There are ways to create these devices with
lithography, but it is very hard to create patterns below 50 nanometers using
lithography," said Tony Jun Huang, associate professor of engineering
science and mechanics, Penn State. "It is rather simple now to make metal
nanomaterials using synthetic chemistry. Our process allows pattern transfer of
arrays of these nanomaterials onto substrates that might not be compatible with
conventional lithography. For example, we could make networks of wires and then
pattern them to arrays of living cells."