Nanoimprint lithography for nanodevice fabrication.

Steven Barcelo,Zhiyong Li

doi:10.1186/s40580-016-0081-y

Abstract

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a compelling technique for low cost nanoscale device fabrication. The precise and repeatable replication of nanoscale patterns from a single high resolution patterning step makes the NIL technique much more versatile than other expensive techniques such as e-beam or even helium ion beam lithography. Furthermore, the use of mechanical deformation during the NIL process enables grayscale lithography with only a single patterning step, not achievable with any other conventional lithography techniques. These strengths enable the fabrication of unique nanoscale devices by NIL for a variety of applications including optics, plasmonics and even biotechnology. Recent advances in throughput and yield in NIL processes demonstrate the potential of being adopted for mainstream semiconductor device fabrication as well.

Highlights

Nanoimprint lithography was first defined as a nanoscale fabrication process with the potential for low cost and high throughput more than 20 years ago [1]
In the years since it has developed into a legitimate alternative to conventional lithographic technology and has found applications in many areas of nanoscale device fabrication ranging from more standard semiconductor devices [2, 3] and bit patterned media [4, 5] to more unique applications in optics [6,7,8,9,10] plasmonics [11,12,13,14] microfluidics [15,16,17] and biomimetic structures [18, 19]
The concept of soft lithography was extended to nanoimprint lithography through the use of molds composed of elastomeric material such as Poly(dimethylsiloxanes) (PDMS), polyimides and polyurethanes, PDMS is by far the most common material [21]

Summary

Introduction

Nanoimprint lithography was first defined as a nanoscale fabrication process with the potential for low cost and high throughput more than 20 years ago [1]. In this review we will discuss a number of areas in the broad categories of electronics, optics and plasmonics in which NIL has been used to advance the state of the art for fabrication of nanodevices. In many cases, this is achieved by reducing the cost of fabrication either through simplified process flows or by replacing expensive lithography equipment. Unique devices are demonstrated by NIL which cannot be fabricated on a large scale by any other conventional lithography technique

Review

Findings

Conclusion