Electrostatic force-assisted nanoimprint lithography (EFAN).
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.
Liang
Xiaogan
X
Nanostructure Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA. xliang@princeton.edu
Zhang
Wei
W
Li
Mingtao
M
Xia
Qiangfei
Q
Wu
Wei
W
Ge
Haixiong
H
Huang
Xinyu
X
Chou
Stephen Y
SY
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