Force-Balanced Meniscal Dispensers for Depositing Crystalline Layers, and Methods of Printing Crystalline Patterned Features

A method of printing features onto a substrate using a precursor solution containing a depositable material dissolved in a solvent, wherein each feature has an in-plane size and an in-plane shape and is composed of the depositable material after the solvent leaves the feature, the method comprising:

• providing a substrate having a printing region containing a plurality of feature regions surrounded by non-feature regions, wherein:
• the method has a printing direction along the substrate;
• the printing region has a width perpendicular to the printing direction;
• the feature regions define the locations of the crystalline features;
• ones of the feature regions are spaced from one another both along the printing direction and perpendicular to the printing direction;
• each feature region has a hydrophilic surface that is hydrophilic to the precursor solution and is sized and shaped to match, respectively, the in-plane size and the in-plane shape of the corresponding crystalline feature;
• and
• each feature region being defined by feature boundaries formed between the hydrophilic surface and a hydrophobic surface that surrounds the hydrophilic surface and that is hydrophobic the precursor solution;
• and
• moving a meniscus of the precursor solution, in contact with the printing region the entirety of the width of the printing region, along the printing direction so as to deposit a portion of the solution onto the hydrophilic surfaces of the feature regions and to not deposit any of the solution on the hydrophobic surface.