US Patent 7306316 - Nanoscale inkjet printing using cryogenic fluid

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7306316.html

Nanolithography processes have adapted various printing techniques including inkjet printing to provide selective deposition of nanomaterials. This patent teaches an inkjet printer adapted to use superfluidic helium to facilitate the breakup of the ejected droplets into nanoscale components. Claim 1 reads:

1. A jet apparatus for nanoscale printing onto a substrate comprising a print head and a translational apparatus housed in a housing comprising at least one housing chamber; a reservoir comprising a cryogenic fluid in communication with the print head; and a dopant injector mechanically coupled to a storage containment comprising dopant molecules; and wherein at least one droplet of the cryogenic fluid is discharged from the print head and is expelled across at least a part of the housing chamber to combine with at least one dopant molecule discharged from the dopant injector, and wherein the combined at least one droplet of the cryogenic fluid and the at least one dopant molecule collides with the substrate positioned on the translational apparatus.