Demolding improvement for multidirectional nanostructures by nanoimprint lithography

Abstract

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is one of the most promising nanofabrication techniques. Soft NIL has inherent advantages for conformal contact and uneven substrates. The demolding process of soft NIL is critical for obtaining high-fidelity replicas, especially of multidirectional nanostructures. In this paper, a demolding device for soft NIL is proposed to separate the polymer replica from the mold vertically and improve its quality. The finite element method was used to simulate the demolding process and calculate the developed stresses. The results demonstrated that no undesired plastic deformation was generated by the proposed demolding device. Successful fabrication of high-fidelity nanograting patterns verified the ability of the demolding device to improve the demolding quality of high-aspect-ratio and multidirectional structures fabricated by soft NIL.