Electric Field Assisted Assembly of Functionalized Quantum Dots into Multiple Layer Thin Films

A CMOS electronic microarray device was used to carry out assisted self-assembly of quantum dots into multilayer structures. CMOS electronic microarrays produce reconfigurable DC electric fields that allow DNA, proteins and other charged molecules to be rapidly transported from the bulk solution and addressed to any activated site on the array surface. Such a device was now used to carry out rapid highly parallel assisted selfassembly of biotin and streptavidin derivatized quantum dots into multilayer structures. Nanoparticle addressing could be carried out in 15 seconds or less, and was monitored by changes in fluorescence as each quantum dot layer was deposited. Some final multilayered 3D nanostructures were examined by SEM.