Computational study of the effect of side wall quality of the template on release force in nanoimprint lithography

Abstract

A template release force is one of the important factors for a low-defect template release process in nanoimprint lithography. In this work, the origin of the template release force is investigated by computational study of side wall quality characteristics such as the critical separation forces between the template and the resist interface, and the slope angle of the side wall. The critical separation forces in the normal and shear directions, which are related to adhesion and friction characteristics are experimentally evaluated for the computational study. The computational results show that the shear separation force, which is related to the static friction between the template surface and the resist, strongly affects the release force characteristics. On the other hand, the side wall slope angle also affects the template release force above the critical side wall slope angle. The computational results show good agreement with experimental results.

Study on the releasing process of tilted grating structure for AR glasses using nanoimprint

“…For the mold release process in nanoimprint, the releasing mechanism has been clarified based on a fracture mechanics model [5] and verified with experiments [6].…”

Study on the releasing process of tilted grating structure for AR glasses using nanoimprint

“…For the mold release process in nanoimprint, we have been investigated the releasing mechanism based on a fracture mechanics model [8] and verified with experiments [9]. In this study, we exclude the material property of adhesion and focus on the strain generated by the geometric deformation that depends on the peeling method when there is neither adhesion nor friction at the interface state between the resin and the mold.…”

AFM cantilevers with spherical tip of millimeter size

“…Owing to the larger diameters of the tip, it is easier to coat it with various layers, making it possible to measure the tribological properties between different materials, such as various anti-adhesive coatings in contact with polymers to potentially be used in nano-imprint lithography [17]. Such measurements, as well as those mentioned below, were performed using a commercial NT-206 AFM system.…”