NanoInk Workshop
Tip-Based Lithography for Bioengineers

Dip Pen Nanolithography (DPN®) is a technique where materials are patterned onto a surface using nanoscale tips.  This technique operates under ambient conditions, making it suitable for the deposition of a wide range of biological, organic, and inorganic materials.  It is capable of patterning features as big as 10 µm and as small as 20 nm.

The nanolithography tools developed at NanoInk maximize the attributes of DPN by combining both top-down and bottom-up capabilities, simplifying the process of simultaneously depositing multiple materials, and enabling researchers to rapidly pattern arbitrary micro- and nanoscale features.

This workshop will highlight some of the most recent applications and protocols related to the deposition of biomaterials using NanoInk’s most recent lithography tool, the NLP 2000 System.

Biomaterials Deposition:  We will demonstrate how we can directly pattern hydrogels, both pure and functionalized, in arbitrary sizes and patterns over large areas (40 mm x 40 mm).  The NLP 2000 System gives researchers the ability to pattern multiple biocompatible polymers at sub-cellular features sizes with nanoscale precision.

Parallel and Multiplexed Depositions:  Using NanoInk’s multiple tip arrays; we will show how we can pattern complex multi-component protein arrays with sub-cellular feature sizes for use in cell adhesion, cell migration, and cell differentiation studies.

Rapid Prototyping:  The generation of new patterns requires a simple change in the pattern entered into the software.  This direct write technique can be used to rapidly prototype arbitrary patterns without having to create a new master stamp or mask for each pattern.