Soft lithography will be developed to industrial maturity as an ultra low cost large area patterning process. Self-assembly methods will be optimised to improve yield and specificity to render them viable for future manufacturing processes and will be combined with nanopatterning to create novel structures with a much higher degree of control than previously possible.

The SLASA subproject develops large area, low-cost nanopatterning processes making use of soft elastomeric patterned stamps and self-assembly techniques. The focus lies on soft UV NIL and microcontact printing (µCP). Soft UV NIL allows nanopatterning on wafer scale in a single imprint step at room temperature and at low imprint pressures (<1 bar). µCP uses elastomeric stamps to transfer an ink pattern to a substrate. The scope of inks applied extends from small molecules (alkanethiols) over biomolecules, dendrimers, and polymers to even nanoparticles. Self-assembly methods are explored to complement and optimize large area patterning with functionalized nanoparticles. Applications for the methods developed in the SLASA subproject are foreseen in sensors, diagnostic devices, photonics, photovoltaic and post-CMOS electronic devices.