Characterization of anti-adhesive self-assembled monolayer for nanoimprint lithography

In nanoimprint lithography process, resist adhesion to the mold was usually self-assembled and a release agent on the mold surface to detach easily from the imprinted resist. In the paper, the commercially available silane, 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane (CF3-(CF2)(7)-(CH2)(2)-SiCl3 or FDTS) was used to investigate the anti-adhesion for UV-nanoimprint lithography. A water contact angle as high as 113.11 was achieved by self-assembled monolayer (SAM) deposited on the quarter mold by vapor evaporation, which is desirable for a good anti-adhesion agent between the fused silica and the curing resist. The homogeneous monolayer was also evaluated by AFM and XPS. UV-NIL using FDTS-coated fused silica process good pattern transfer fidelity. It is shown that the FDTS is an excellent and promising release agent material for UV-nanoimprint lithography. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.