Visual Observation of PDMS Tip in Liquid Microcontact Printing

Microcontact printing has been shown to be a viable lithographic technique for the fabrication of microstructures, through the deposition of molecules by conformal contact between a surface and an elastomeric stamp. However, the diffusion of the molecules on the substrate and the deformation of the stamp during the contact are severe drawbacks when considering the resolution of the technique. In this paper, we show the effect of the diffusion of the molecules on the size of gold patterns on silicon and we observe in-situ the deformation of the PDMS stamp in liquid and air environment using an interferential microscopy technique.