Low Temperature Fabrication of Residue-Free Polymer Patterns on Flexible Polymer Substrate

Abstract

Low temperature imprinting on various substrates is essential for applying nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to the patterning process of large-area substrates with low thermal resistance. In addition, the imprinting resist must be distributed uniformly over a large area with near-zero residue imprinting to reduce the level of pattern damage during the residue removal process. In this study, thermal imprinting with a poly(benzyl methacrylate) (PBMA) resist, which can be coated uniformly over a large-area substrate by spin-coating and imprinted at low temperatures, was used to form micro- to nano-sized patterns. The PBMA patterns with a near-zero residual layer could be formed on the substrate using the partial-filling method. Using this imprinting technique, nano-sized PBMA patterns with a minimized residual layer were transferred to a Si wafer and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film with dimensions 50 ×50 mm2. Metal patterns, as small as 70 nm, were fabricated on the substrate using this imprinting and lift-off process.