Fabrication of polypyrrole wires between microelectrodes

The in situ synthesis of strongly adherent polypyrrole, submicrometer wires and sensor devices with feature sizes as small as 200 nm in width can be fabricated through a lift-off process is analyzed. A w-shaped micrometer-scale polypyrrole wire with a 3 μm width is generated on a silicon wafer. Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis shows the expected peaks for carbon, nitrogen, iron, and other elements, which confirmed the chemical composition of the microstructure. The technique is capable of producing polypyrrole sensors with desired dimensions. The method allows fabrication of submicrometer devices with tailored properties. The method can potentially be used for large-area fabrication of submicrometer conducting polymeric patterns through combination with nanoimprint lithography (NIL). The results show that this method will provide valuable method of large-area, easy fabrication of submicrometer conducting polymeric patterns that would be useful in polymer-based electronics.