Striped Droplet Deposition on Patterned Surfaces Using Inkjet-Printing Method

Striped droplet deposition represents a novel non- photolithographic scheme, which is based on current ink-jet printing technique and self-alignment for implementation of microfabrication. Generally thought to be one of soft-lithographic systems, this scheme provides a low-waste, high-speed, and cost-efficient process for the formation of microstructures in Microelectromechanic systems (MEMS) field. We reported a number of generated striped patterns, which differ from conventional ones on the non-planar shapes, typically featuring a convex shape, a width of 180 mu m, and a height of 12 mu m in the study. Moreover, the 1 x 54 arrays of the above striped micro-meter structures deposited by transparent polyurethane (PU) droplets were fabricated by inkjet technique, measured for 2-D/3-D profiles by laser-scanning facility, and thus examined by optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) for their topography. Those generated patterns were smooth on surfaces and therefore useful on the potential applications, such as lens-array chips and waveguide devices etc.