Micro-/nano-lithography based on the contact transfer of thin film and mask embedded etching

Abstract

This paper reports a simple but useful contact imprinting method for micro- and nano-patterning and fabrication. It utilizes an anti-adhesion layer to release a patterned metal film from a mold to a polymer layer deposited on a substrate. The transferred metal pattern then serves as an etching mask for subsequent etching on the polymer layer to complete the patterning and fabrication processes. Experimental tests have been successfully carried out on several samples with linear grating and dot-arrayed features with the feature size ranging from 65 nm to 500 nm. The strength of this method is in its simplicity, ease of implementation and flexibility, which paves the way for fabricating submicron- and nano-structures on different substrates without using sophisticated and expensive facilities.