Sub-μm thick rubber-elastic stamp on rigid support for high reliability microcontact printing

Microcontact printing (muCP) is very attractive as a low cost, high throughput, and sub-100-nm resolution lithography. However, macroscopic distortions (thermal expansion, swelling by the solvent-assisted procedure of inking, externally induced strain) as well as microscopic distortions (membrane relaxation in wide unsupported ;areas and merging of close features) compromise the quality of pattern transfer. We show that ultrathin (< 1 mum) poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamps fabricated directly on flat rigid substrates are capable of printing high-resolution, high-quality patterns on areas larger than 1 cm(2). Moreover, sagging effect is avoided even for patterns with very low filling ratio (5% of the surface). The absence of stamp distortions has allowed to 2 demonstrate 1 mum registration accuracy over areas of 5 X 5 mm(2) in a mix and match process (muCP as a second step) using a homemade aligner. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.