Abstract
Sub-100 nm patterns can be duplicated by nanoimprint lithography with highreproducibility, even on 200 mm wafers. Nevertheless, several problems have to besolved before this technique reaches a mature state for industrial applications.Several kinds of defect appear frequently in printed polymers. Some of them areinduced by capillary effects and are related to mould deformation. Capillarybridges are observed on the flat surfaces around the pattern areas, or inside theprinted structures. In this paper, the influence of the polymer molecular weight(Mw) on the capillary bridge distribution is presented. It will be shown that for smallerMw, they appear first around the pattern areas and move towards the structures more rapidly.It is also demonstrated that this evolution depends directly on the printing temperatureand pattern filling related to the feature density and the film thickness. Finally, it isshown that the influence of these parameters is related to the polymer viscosity,which is the dominant property of the capillary effects, and a trade-off has to bemade between the limitation due to the capillary bridges, the decrease of thetemperature, which is important to reduce the cycle time, and the sticking defects.
Published Version
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