During my Physics PhD I essentially built a nanoscale 3D printer using a piezo actuator mounted in the vacuum chamber of a thermal evaporator. I made a “shadow

During my Physics PhD I essentially built a nanoscale 3D printer using a piezo actuator mounted in the vacuum chamber of a thermal evaporator. I made a “shadow mask” of a suspended silicon nitride film through which I punched a hole using a focused ion beam. By moving the mask and varying the speed during the evaporation I could ‘draw’ out structures. I drew nanostructures of gold and maybe chromium too. Could do features as small as 10 nm this way. Probably could get smaller with further optimisation.