Mold Surface Treatment for Imprint Lithography.

Abstract

An adhesion problem is one of the most significant problems in nano imprint lithography. A mold should be released from a resist polymer without adhesion. We investigate a surface coating of a mold by fluorine polymers to reduce surface tension and making it easy to release the mold from the resist polymer. Evaporation of a FEP polymer in vacuum atmosphere and surface treatment for a mold by a silane-coupling agent with perfluoropolyether (PFPE-S) is examined. The releasing characteristics of molds are quantitatively evaluated by a contact angle for a water droplet. Durability of the fluorine polymers is also evaluated by continuous imprinting and the abrasion examinations.

Chemical force microscopy for hot-embossing lithography release layer characterization

“…23 Covalently tethered self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have several advantages over ion-sputtered and plasma deposited PTFE-films including minimal impact on feature size and longevity. 15,[24][25][26][27] As well as high stability with respect to both heat and chemical attack, saturated perfluorocarbons offer the lowest dielectric constants and surface energies of any liquid. 28 Many perfluoro SAMs have been studied on a variety of surfaces including the alkanoates on zirconia, 29 the silanes on silicon oxide, [30][31][32] and thiolates on gold and other coinage metals.…”

A Consideration of Important Factor on Demolding Force for Various Molds

“…After the etching, the fabricated mold is bonded to a graphite mold holder of 15 mm in diameter. The standard anti-sticking treatment (Daikin: OPTOOL DSX) is carried out to the mold [5]. In some experiments, the anti-sticking layer is degraded by the UV/O 3 treatment [6].…”

Localized Abrasion Resistance Test for Antisticking Layer by Atomic Force Microscopy

“…The mesa structure was 1.6 µm × 1.6 µm. We then formed a fluorinated self-assembled monolayer on the SiO 2 /Si substrate with the mesa structure using (tridecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyl)trimethoxy silane (FAS-13) by a dip-coating process 10) . Figure 2 shows a schematic of the localized abrasion resistance test by AFM.…”