Massively parallel nanorobotics for lithography and data storage

Nanometer-scale structures and devices can be constructed by using the lip of a scanning probe microscope (SPM) as a robot. The tip manipulates nanoco mponents to build assemblies, or induces material deposition to form patter ns on a substrate. Fabrication by SPM methods has severe throughput problem s, which can be solved by using arrays of tips built by MEMS (MicroElectroM echanical Systems) technology, in conjunction with the strategies and algor ithms presented in this paper: Massively parallel methods are described her e for writing and reading nanometer-scab patterns of lines or dots, or for manipulating nanoparticles with arrays of SPM lips. The tip array moves as a whole in the x, y plane of the substrate, and does not require individual x, y drives and controllers for the individual tips. Applications to nanol ithography are discussed, as well as a microelectromechanical storage devic e, analogous to a compact disc (CD) on a chip, and called an editable nanoC D. NanoCDs can be read and edited by the rip-array methods presented here, and have bit densities and reading speeds that are several orders of magnit ude higher than those of current CDs.