Anisotropic remastering for reducing feature sizes on UV nanoimprint lithography replica molds

Abstract

We present an approach that uses existing nanoimprint molds and reduces the size of the resulting features significantly via a remastering process utilizing the anisotropic etchant tetramethylammonium hydroxide and a mold casting step. Inverted pyramidal structures and V-grooves were imprinted using these 2.5-dimensional (2.5D) replica molds. Pattern transfer into silicon (Si) substrates was established with an intermediate silicon nitride (SiNx) layer that can be etched with a much larger selectivity against the imprint resist than the Si substrate. The 2.5D resist profiles are thus transferred back into binary structures in the SiNx layer and subsequently into the Si substrate. A substantial size reduction of the diameter of pits from 91 to 33 nm and the width of lines from 600 to 142 nm was achieved.