Nanolithography (NL) is a growing field of techniques within nanotechnology dealing with the engineering (patterning e.g. etching, depositing, writing, printing etc) of nanometer-scale structures on various materials.
The modern term reflects on a design of structures built in range of 10−9 to 10−6 meters, i.e. nanometer scale.
With evolution of the semiconductor industry, demand for techniques capable of producing micro- and nano-scale structures skyrocketed.
Optical lithography contains several important derivative techniques, all that use very short light wavelengths in order to change the solubility of certain molecules, causing them to wash away in solution, leaving behind a desired structure.
By changing the solubility of the resist and subsequent selective removal of material by immersion in a solvent, sub-10 nm resolutions have been achieved.
This form of direct-write, maskless lithography has high resolution and low throughput, limiting single-column e-beams to photomask fabrication, low-volume production of semiconductor devices, and research and development.
Elastomers are used to make a stamp, mold, or mask (akin to photomask) which in turn is used to generate micro patterns and microstructures.
The soft lithography isn't suitable for production of semiconductor-based devices as it's not complementary for metal deposition and etching.
The second component is ferromagnetic nanoparticles (analog to the Photoresist) that are assembled onto the substrate according to the field induced by the magnetic mask.
A nanofountain probe is a micro-fluidic device similar in concept to a fountain pen which deposits a narrow track of chemical from a reservoir onto the substrate according to the movement pattern programmed.
[15] Stencil lithography is a resist-less and parallel method of fabricating nanometer scale patterns using nanometer-size apertures as shadow-masks.