High-efficiency technique based on dielectrophoresis for assembling metal, semiconductor, and polymer nanorods

This paper presents a high-efficiency technique based on dielectrophoresis (DEP) for assembling metal, semiconductor, and polymer nanorods, which are synthesized by electrochemical deposition (ECD). The assembly patterns of these nanorods (width: 20 nm; length: 7 μm) were designed using a finite element method (FEM) simulation tool. Further, these nanorods were used in our experiment after their assembly patterns were fabricated. The assembly yield was found to be approximately 70% at an AC voltage of 30 V_p-p and at frequencies of 20 and 30 kHz, and the DC voltage prevented the random alignment of the nanorods at the edge of the assembly pattern. Moreover, the above-mentioned nanorods, which had different permittivities, were found to have similar assembly yields. The proposed method can be improved and applied to nanostructure device fabrication.