Impact of Imprint Pressure on Residual Layer Thickness in UV Nanoimprint Lithography

Abstract

Ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) is an important micro/nano fabrication approach. UV-NIL has the advantage of high solution, high throughput and low cost. However, some inner resist flow mechanism is not completely understood by experimental methods. This contribution used the simulation method based on contact mechanics to analyze the impact of imprint pressure on residual layer thickness (RLT). Seven different pressure, from 0.1 MPa to 0.7 MPa, was applied to imprint the same stamp containing grating patterns with various protrusion density. It was found that RLT is not uniform and the areas with high protrusion density has much higher RLT. The average RLT decreases with imprint time and tends to be stable when the imprint process is completed. Both the maximum and minimum RLT decreases with the increase of imprint pressure. These findings can help engineers to design proper stamp pattern distribution and process parameters. Introduction