Room-Temperature Nanoimprint Lithography

Abstract

ABSTRACTRoom-temperature nanoimprint lithography (RT-NIL) using spin-coated hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) resin as the replication material was developed. HSQ pattern with 50 nm linewidth was successfully obtained by the RT-NIL. Postbaking temperature dependence of a HSQ imprinted depth on a mold linewidth was investigated. HSQ imprinted depth had a dependence on the mold linewidth. This revealed that the RT-NIL is suitable for the linewidths of below 1 mm. Furthermore, we have also developed a new imprinting technique that uses liquid-phase hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) as an alternative to the spin-coated HSQ resin. The liquid-phase HSQ imprint technique enabled fabrication of various HSQ patterns with a wide range of linewidths from 25 nm to 300 mm. Arbitrary patterns, including both submicron and greater than 100 micron patterns, were simultaneously replicated with a one-step imprint process, something very difficult to accomplish with spin-coated HSQ. Moreover, after imprinting, the residual HSQ layer in the compressed area was less than 10 nm thick.