Large Area Fabrication of Moth-Eye Antireflection Structures Using Self-Assembled Nanoparticles in Combination with Nanoimprinting

A moth-eye structure, which suppresses the reflection on a surface, was fabricated on the entire surface of a large silicon wafer by the formation of a self-assembled particle monolayer as a dry-etch mask formed by our embedded particle monolayer (EPM) method. We optimized the shape of moth-eye structures by optical calculation and improved the fabrication procedure to allow formation over a large area. As a result, we succeeded in fabricating a moth-eye structure on the entire surface of a 12-in. silicon wafer and the surface reflectance was reduced to less than 0.8% in the visible light range. A large nickel mold, which is able to transfer the pattern to an 8-in. display, could be formed using the 12-in. silicon substrate as a master. A moth-eye film was fabricated by UV nanoimprinting using the nickel mold and the high antireflection performance was confirmed. The fabrication cost of the moth-eye structure over a large area would be markedly reduced by the use of the self-assembly technique in combination with nanoimprinting. (C) 2010 The Japan Society of Applied Physics