Sub-100 μs nanoimprint lithography at wafer scale

Display Omitted A full 4¿ wafer is nanopatterned by an ultrafast thermal NIL process in 100µs.Stamps with integrated heater enable ultrafast cycles at very high temperature.The thermal cycle is implemented with a single short very intense current pulse.A new tool for the ultrafast NIL (or pulsed-NIL) process has been developed.The process applies to a wide range of thermoplastic materials. We present here an ultrafast thermal NIL technology, which enables the patterning of full wafers on the 100µs time-scale. This technique makes use of stamps with a heating layer integrated beneath their nanostructured surfaces. Injecting a single, short (<100µs), intense current pulse into the heating layer causes the surface temperature of the stamp to raise suddenly by hundreds of degrees¿C, resulting in the melting of the thermoplastic resist film pressed against it and the swift indentation of the nanostructures. This paper introduces the main aspects of this technology, namely the process concept, the stamp structure, and the main features of the equipment by which the process at the wafer scale was implemented.