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Printing Meets Lithography

by Bruno Michel

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Six years ago, our team at IBM set out to find an
alternative to optical lithography by developing a
novel type of lithography that provides high resolution
based on classical flexography printing—
the transfer of a pattern from an
elastomeric stamp to a solid substrate
by conformal, or intimate, contact.
Our main effort sought to enhance
the accuracy of this printing process
to a precision comparable to that of
optical lithography to create a lowcost,
large-area, high-resolution patterning process. After
having developed and tested several printing-based alternative-
patterning approaches, we also found that stamps
are useful in a new form of optical-contact lithography