Difference between revisions of "Nanoimprint Lithography"
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Paul Scherrer Institut, Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, ODRA/103, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland. | Paul Scherrer Institut, Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, ODRA/103, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland. | ||
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For current and future applications with nanopatterned surfaces and functional devices, high-resolution parallel patterning methods are required that offers cost-effective manufacturing. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is the most prominent of the new lithographic techniques with proven resolution down to the nanometer range which can be scaled up for large areas and high throughput. It is called lithography because its main focus is to become a next generation lithography intended for high volume manufacturing (HVM) of integrated circuit (IC) chips. Unlike electron- or photon-based lithography, it works by replicating a surface topography of a stamp into a viscous material by direct mechanical contact and 3D material displacement [1]. Yet NIL is still similar enough to standard lithography to permit the use of the same manufacturing and technology base: it uses stamps made by advanced lithography and silicon process technology, a thin polymer resist for pattern transfer into the underlying substrate by etching or onto it by electroplating, and imprint tools which still have significant resemblance to mask aligners, photolithographic steppers and anodic bonding tools. Apart from NIL directed towards lithography, process solutions arise which are more related to polymer moulding, such as continuous foil patterning using roll-to-roll (R2R) processes and generation of entire polymer elements by thermal injection moulding (TIM). With the advent of patterning hybrid (e.g., nano- on microstructures) or 3D structures (surface topographies or free-form shapes) there will be a range of other methods which open up the NIL processes towards many more process variants. Most of them will still have some resemblance to NIL, others will take advantage of single NIL steps, e.g., for the fabrication of stamp copies or functional structures which can be inserted into tools, e.g. for TIM. The aim of this introduction to present NIL as a basic process being able to replace standard photolithography (PL), where a resist layer is patterned by mechanical means instead of exposure and wet development, but also show that functional materials (e.g., photo- or bio-active materials) can be directly patterned leading to an enhanced functionality of a surface. Main references to this introduction are chapters on NIL in the Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology [2] which gives a good overview about the process chains needed for understanding, and the developed of NIL towards high throughput manufacturing in CRC Microlithography - Science and Technology [3], with a range of references on state-of-the-art techniques and companies. | For current and future applications with nanopatterned surfaces and functional devices, high-resolution parallel patterning methods are required that offers cost-effective manufacturing. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is the most prominent of the new lithographic techniques with proven resolution down to the nanometer range which can be scaled up for large areas and high throughput. It is called lithography because its main focus is to become a next generation lithography intended for high volume manufacturing (HVM) of integrated circuit (IC) chips. Unlike electron- or photon-based lithography, it works by replicating a surface topography of a stamp into a viscous material by direct mechanical contact and 3D material displacement [1]. Yet NIL is still similar enough to standard lithography to permit the use of the same manufacturing and technology base: it uses stamps made by advanced lithography and silicon process technology, a thin polymer resist for pattern transfer into the underlying substrate by etching or onto it by electroplating, and imprint tools which still have significant resemblance to mask aligners, photolithographic steppers and anodic bonding tools. Apart from NIL directed towards lithography, process solutions arise which are more related to polymer moulding, such as continuous foil patterning using roll-to-roll (R2R) processes and generation of entire polymer elements by thermal injection moulding (TIM). With the advent of patterning hybrid (e.g., nano- on microstructures) or 3D structures (surface topographies or free-form shapes) there will be a range of other methods which open up the NIL processes towards many more process variants. Most of them will still have some resemblance to NIL, others will take advantage of single NIL steps, e.g., for the fabrication of stamp copies or functional structures which can be inserted into tools, e.g. for TIM. The aim of this introduction to present NIL as a basic process being able to replace standard photolithography (PL), where a resist layer is patterned by mechanical means instead of exposure and wet development, but also show that functional materials (e.g., photo- or bio-active materials) can be directly patterned leading to an enhanced functionality of a surface. Main references to this introduction are chapters on NIL in the Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology [2] which gives a good overview about the process chains needed for understanding, and the developed of NIL towards high throughput manufacturing in CRC Microlithography - Science and Technology [3], with a range of references on state-of-the-art techniques and companies. | ||
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Revision as of 18:53, 21 March 2017
Paul Scherrer Institut, Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, ODRA/103, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland. --TOC--
NanoImprint Lithography (henceforth NIL) is a high throughput, high-resolution parallel patterning method in which a surface pattern of a stamp is replicated into a material by mechanical contact and 3D material displacement. This can be done by shaping a liquid followed by a curing process for hardening, by variation of the thermomechanical properties of a film by heating and cooling, or by any other kind of shaping process using the difference in hardness of a mould and a mouldable material. The local thickness contrast of the resulting thin moulded film can be used as a means to pattern an underlying substrate on wafer level by standard pattern transfer methods, but also directly in applications where a bulk modified functional layer is needed. Therefore it is mainly aimed toward fields in which electron beam and high-end photolithography are costly and do not provide sufficient resolution at reasonable throughput. NIL is used or is currently tested for high volume manufacturing in different applications, such as semiconductor integrated circuit chips bit patterned media, patterns sapphire substrates, wire grid polarizers, photonic devices, and will play a key role in future biochips.
1 Introduction
For current and future applications with nanopatterned surfaces and functional devices, high-resolution parallel patterning methods are required that offers cost-effective manufacturing. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is the most prominent of the new lithographic techniques with proven resolution down to the nanometer range which can be scaled up for large areas and high throughput. It is called lithography because its main focus is to become a next generation lithography intended for high volume manufacturing (HVM) of integrated circuit (IC) chips. Unlike electron- or photon-based lithography, it works by replicating a surface topography of a stamp into a viscous material by direct mechanical contact and 3D material displacement [1]. Yet NIL is still similar enough to standard lithography to permit the use of the same manufacturing and technology base: it uses stamps made by advanced lithography and silicon process technology, a thin polymer resist for pattern transfer into the underlying substrate by etching or onto it by electroplating, and imprint tools which still have significant resemblance to mask aligners, photolithographic steppers and anodic bonding tools. Apart from NIL directed towards lithography, process solutions arise which are more related to polymer moulding, such as continuous foil patterning using roll-to-roll (R2R) processes and generation of entire polymer elements by thermal injection moulding (TIM). With the advent of patterning hybrid (e.g., nano- on microstructures) or 3D structures (surface topographies or free-form shapes) there will be a range of other methods which open up the NIL processes towards many more process variants. Most of them will still have some resemblance to NIL, others will take advantage of single NIL steps, e.g., for the fabrication of stamp copies or functional structures which can be inserted into tools, e.g. for TIM. The aim of this introduction to present NIL as a basic process being able to replace standard photolithography (PL), where a resist layer is patterned by mechanical means instead of exposure and wet development, but also show that functional materials (e.g., photo- or bio-active materials) can be directly patterned leading to an enhanced functionality of a surface. Main references to this introduction are chapters on NIL in the Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology [2] which gives a good overview about the process chains needed for understanding, and the developed of NIL towards high throughput manufacturing in CRC Microlithography - Science and Technology [3], with a range of references on state-of-the-art techniques and companies.
