Fabrication of Advanced Functional Devices Combining Soft Chemistry with X-ray Lithography in One Step

In this work we have combined sol–gel synthesis and deep X-ray lithography offering facile design and production of miniaturized devices. This procedure fills the gap between the synthesis of inorganic or hybrid functionalized materials and the miniaturization of precise and well defined circuits. Sol–gel synthesis is used to produce the functional coatings and X-rays are used to crosslink the inorganic network and/or to alter the functionalities on exposed areas. At the moment no other X-ray based technologies allow one to tailor a wide range of material properties (composition, morphology, thickness, porosity) in such fast, one-step process with remarkable resolution: the combination of these features makes this approach unique.