Protein microarrays are rapidly emerging as valuable tools in creating combinatorial cell culture systems where inducers of cellular differentiation can be identified in a rapid and multiplexed fashion. In the present study, protein microarraying was combined with photoresist lithography to enable printing of extracellular matrix (ECM) protein arrays while precisely controlling "on-the-spot" ce...

Photoresists are polymers sensitive to light, usually in the ultraviolet (UV) range of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. They are classified into positive and negative. In positive types, the exposed to light region of the photoresist becomes solvable to a developer, while the unexposed one remains unsolvable. In negative types the opposite happens. Photoresists are widely used in micro a...

Research has been conducted to develop alternatives to chemically amplified 193 nm photoresist materials that will be able to achieve the requirements associated with sub-32 nm device technology. New as well as older photoresist design concepts for non-chemically amplified 193 nm photoresists that have the potential to enable improvements in line edge roughness while maintaining adequate sensit...

We have recently proposed a new approach to optical lithography that could be used to replicate arrays of metal nanoparticles using broad beam illumination with visible light and standard photoresist. The method relies on resonant excitation of the surface plasmon oscillation in the nanoparticles. When excited at the surface plasmon frequency, a resonantly enhanced dipole field builds up around...

Next generation photoresist systems using block copolymer self-assembly have been developed and characterized within the Ober Research Group. Block copolymers containing methacrylate polymer backbones have been designed for low absorption in 193 nm lithography. The polymers synthesized are composed of two polymer chains that can be selectively crosslinked or removed, respectively, from the poly...