Abstract
We report an experimental and theoretical study of two most critical yet stillto-be-answered issues in dispensing-based nanoimprint lithography (D-NIL): air bubbleformation and absorption, and discuss their impact on NIL yield and throughput. Usingreal-time observation via video, we found two different mechanisms for air bubble formation(feature pinning and multi-droplet encircling), and studied the dynamic behaviour of theair absorption and air bubble shrinking under different conditions. Furthermore, wedeveloped theoretical models and simulation programs of the air absorption and bubbleshrinking based on molecular diffusion theory and hydrodynamics. We compared thesemodels with experiments, and found excellent agreement. Our study shows that the keyfactors that affect the air dissolution time (and hence the air bubble shrinkingtime) are air bubble initial size, imprinting pressure, air solubility, and resistresidue layer thickness. One of our key conclusions from the study, which hassignificant practical importance, is that although the air in a bubble can be completelydissolved in a resist liquid as long as the bubble is smaller than a certain size,the air absorption time might be too long for the dispensing-NIL operating inatmosphere or poor vacuum to have a necessary throughput in mass manufacturing.
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