Patent ID: 8206773

Claim:
A system for the patterned deposition of a polymer by self-assembly, the system comprising: a polymer printhead comprising a monomer solution reservoir and a microcolumn fluidically coupled at a loading end to the reservoir, said microcolumn also having an elution end; a temperature controller for regulating temperature within the microcolumn, wherein the microcolumn temperature is regulated either as a constant temperature throughout the microcolumn or as a gradient of increasing temperature from the loading end to the elution end of the microcolumn; a substrate mounted in apposition to the elution end of the microcolumn and movable in a plane orthogonal to the axis of the microcolumn for deposition of a polymer of-said monomer onto a surface of the substrate apposed to the microcolumn; and a movable stage for relative X-Y positioning of the substrate and the polymer printhead.