Evaluation of an alternative UV-NIL mold fabrication process

Abstract:
UV curing Nanoimprint Lithography (UV-NIL) requires the use of UV-transparent molds presenting nanoscale features on their active face. Although the choice of the transparent material (0.25" thick fused silica) seems to be definitely adopted by the UV-NIL developers, several patterning approaches have been reported during the last years, still none of them has already reached a mass production level. In this paper, we report on alternative patterning techniques based on the use of a thin transparent films deposited on the fused silica thick template. We investigate the suitability of materials currently used in integrated circuits fabrication, i.e., silicon nitride, silicon and titanium nitrate. Patterning and transfer techniques of nanoscale features within the deposited thin films have been performed and characterized. The first molds obtained exhibit quite good specification at the range of 300 nm. Ongoing works aim to optimize these procedures and to evaluate their suitability for higher resolution range.