Large-Scale Dip-Pen Nanolithography of Multiplexed Deposition of DNA Ink by Compliant Nano-Manipulator

Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) is a nanofabrication technique based on atomic force microscopy (AFM), which can directly write molecular patterns on substrates with high resolution and excellent registration. However, the writing range of conventional AFM is around 100 × 100 µm², which limits large-scale multiplexed deposition of ink writing by DPN. Here, a novel approach is proposed to overcome this limitation with large-scale dip-pen nanolithography (LS-DPN) that allows for multiplexed deposition of ink writing of an area up to 1 × 1 mm² with a compliant nano-manipulator (CNM). The compact CNM can provide planar motion with nanoscale precision and millimeter range for writing. The experimental results show that the proposed LS-DPN performs effectively in different writing ranges under various modes, resolutions, and frequencies. Compared with the conventional DPNs, the approach can realize dipping and multiplexed deposition of ink without replacing the scanning probe. In this study, DNA ink (A, G, C, and T) is written by the LS-DPN and four DNA nanodots are obtained, which indicates its unique ability to prepare complex nanostructures. Therefore, this work develops a novel method for large-scale nanofabrication, and the prepared nanostructures may be used in molecular electronics, photonics, biosensing, and high-density information storage.