Table 1.

Summary of different nano-architecture fabrication techniques.

Nano-architecture technique	Compatible materials	Resolution	time required	Cost	Serial or batch processing	Features	References
Electron beam lithography	Silicon and conductive materials. Requires electron-sensitive resist (i.e., PMMA)	Below 10 nm	Slow for scanning focused electron beam	High-equipment cost (>$1 million)	Serial for focused electron beam; batch processing possible for projection electron beam lithography; device-scale or wafer-scale	Often used to create master mold for nano-imprint lithography	Tseng et al., 2003; Dong et al., 2005a; Joo et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2007; Dalby et al., 2008; Yang and Leong, 2010; Scholten and Meng, 2016
Nano-imprint lithography	Silicon-based materials, metals, polymers	2–100 nm	Relatively fast to transfer pattern from mold to resist	High cost of master mold, but overall cost is relatively low due to reusability of mold	Batch processing; device-scale or wafer-scale	Two broad categories: thermal NIL and ultraviolet NIL	Chen and Ahmed, 1993; Schulz et al., 2000; Dong et al., 2005b; Guo, 2007; Li et al., 2011; Al-Abaddi et al., 2012; Choi et al., 2013; Eom et al., 2015; Baquedano et al., 2017
Focused ion beam lithography	Silicon-based materials, metals, and polymers	∼20 nm	Slow rate of milling	High-equipment cost (>$1 million)	Serial processing on device-scale	Direct write; flexible design and materials	Watkins et al., 1986; Veerman et al., 1998; Lehrer et al., 2001; Reyntjens and Puers, 2001; Heyderman et al., 2003; Gabay et al., 2005; Kim et al., 2007; Lanyon and Arrigan, 2007; Raffa et al., 2008; Christopherson et al., 2009; Ziberi et al., 2009; Bechara et al., 2010; Dugan et al., 2010; Menard and Ramsey, 2010; Wang et al., 2017; Vermeij et al., 2018