Stacks of functional oxide thin films patterned by micromolding.

Stacks of up to five relief patterned functional oxide thin films were obtained by a low-cost and low-tech soft-lithographic patterning technique. Micromolding was used to pattern a film of a metal-organic precursor solution for Y-stabilized ZrO(2) (YSZO). Subsequent drying and pyrolysis yielded a line-patterned YSZO film. The process was repeated up to four times with a precursor solution for BaTiO(3) on top of the YSZO film, resulting in stacks of YSZO and BaTiO(3) lines with well-defined edges. This approach presents a step forward on the way to a versatile additive micropatterning technique with which simple multi-material device structures can be fabricated in a reliable, fast, and cost-effective manner.