Fabrication of ceramic material with nanoscale features via soft lithography

SPM tips are typically produced by MEMS processing methods, which limit the possible geometries and solid cross sections of the resultant cantilevers. In contrast, the ease of molding of pre-ceramic polymers may enable a wider variety of cantilever geometries, in particular those capable of extremely high frequency oscillations and therefore suitable for high speed SPM techniques.

The fabrication of a ceramic material with nanoscale features via the soft lithography method is demonstrated in this study, and applied to the production of cantilevers for SPM.

A nanostructured silicone mold is cast using a silicon master; the pattern is then transferred to a pre-ceramic precursor polymer via soft lithography. The pre-ceramic polymer, following curing, is convened to silicon carbide (SiC) using a single step pyrolysis process.

The materials produced are characterized by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.