title: Electrostatic force-assisted nanoimprint lithography (EFAN).
abstract: We present and demonstrate a novel imprint method, electrostatic force-assisted nanoimprint lithography (EFAN), where a voltage applied between a mold and a substrate generates an electrostatic force that presses the mold into a resist on the substrate. We have successfully used EFAN to pattern nanostructures in a photocurable resist spin-coated on a wafer, with high fidelity and excellent uniformity over the entire substrate, in ambient atmosphere without using a vacuum chamber. In initial tests without any process optimization, 100 nm half-pitch gratings with a residual layer thickness of 22+/-5 nm were imprinted across a 100 mm diameter wafer in about 2 s. Furthermore, numerical calculations show that the field magnitude experienced by the dielectric layers on the substrate is much less than their breakdown limit. Hence, EFAN is well suited for step-and-repeat nanoimprint lithography, and its simple operation can simplify and speed up multilayer alignment process.
authors.affiliation: Nanostructure Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA. xliang@princeton.edu
authors.forename: Xiaogan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Mingtao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qiangfei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Haixiong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Stephen Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chou
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D004566:Electrodes; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D055672:Static Electricity; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013499:Surface Properties