Fabrication of 3D nanowire frames by conventional micromachining technology

We report on a simple parallel processing method capable of producing addressable three-dimensional (3D) nanometer-sized structures, such as wires, wire frames and dots. The method, which is fully compatible with standard micromachining, employs isotropic removal of conformally deposited material onto a prepared template, to form nanostructures in the concave corners of the template. The process results in well-defined nanometer scale structures with exact position and spatial arrangement fully determined by the template. An etching mask with nanometer size features and a nanowire pyramid on a freestanding cantilever have been successfully fabricated, demonstrating the feasibility and potential of this technology.