Journal
MICROELECTRONIC ENGINEERING
Volume 180, Issue -, Pages 40-44Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.mee.2017.05.049
Keywords
Micro replication; Nanoimprint lithography; Stamp lifetime; Up-scaling; Atomic force microscopy; PDMS
Categories
Funding
- Cusanuswerk, Bischofliche Studienforderung
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Within this work we investigate the lifetime of soft PDMS stamps as a critical parameter for the up-scaled fabrication of microstructures via nanoimprint lithography. We propose the characterization of the PDMS hardness as a suitable parameter for the stamp degradation. The increasing hardness for a larger number of imprints is attributed to resist diffusion into the PDMS volume and possibly subsequent cross-linking. Force-distance measurements with an atomic force microscope were applied to demonstrate for two acrylic materials that a lower average molecular weight leads to a faster degradation. Using a temperature-assisted UV-imprint process with an epoxy material (SU-8 2002) enabled more than 100 imprints without measurable degradation due to the complex molecular structure which we assume to reduce the resist diffusion. This can be a key development towards a higher stamp lifetime and finally an industrial realization of NIL. (C)2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available