(October 13, 2010) — AMO GmbH, a private research service provider in the field of nanofabrication, and SUSS MicroTec AG, equipment and process solutions supplier for semiconductor and related microstructuring steps, are developing applications for substrate conformal imprint lithography (SCIL) with UV curing material.
SUSS MicroTec’s SCIL imprint method for sub-50nm structures optimizes standard imprinting processes for wafers up to 6" area full-field imprinting. High resolution nanoimprinting — so far limited to small wafer sizes — can now be successfully applied to large substrates, SUSS’ goal when it adopted the technology in 2008. Large-area soft stamps with repeatable sub-50nm printing capability do not cause any stamp deformation or even damaging as no contact force is applied and soft, flexible material is used. When used with UV curing materials, SCIL is able to combine a high resolution with a high throughput. SCIL can be used with various well-known materials that are commonly used in UV nanoimprinting processes.
| Figure 1. Silicon master. |
AMO has provided two key components for this development: the master for large-area nanostructures and the UV-curing nanoimprint material AMONIL. The masters, with a size up to 6 inches, are fabricated at AMO by laser interference lithography and plasma etching in silicon. They have perfect binary periodic patterns between 180 to 2500nm. These holographic gratings are characterized by seamless patterns and a low defect density on a large area, due to a special fabrication technology.
| Figure 2. 6" silicon master with 2D hole pattern. |
Hundreds of flexible stamps can be replicated from one master. With SCIL technology the large-area stamp is brought into contact with the AMONIL resist, which is thereafter cured with UV light. The resist material has already been optimized by AMO for the implementation of Quartz- and soft-PDMS stamps in conventional imprint processes. The imprint resist material is distributed by AMO with a standard thickness from 100 to 800nm. Due to the unique sequential contacting and separation technology a distortion-free replication of the stamp at high throughput is now possible with UV-SCIL.
By unifying the competences of each partner, the UV-SCIL method from this successful cooperation could be demonstrated on a large scale. AMO’s and SUSS MicroTec’s customers are now offered the master, material and tool process technology for application developments, such as in the field of LED/VCSEL, diffractive and refractive optical elements, pattern magnetic media or functional material as well as printed electronics or RFIDs.
AMO, as a research company, realizes nanofabrication technologies for applications in the field of information technology, biotechnology and photonics. To learn more, visit www.amo.de
SUSS MicroTec is a leading supplier of equipment and process solutions for microstructuring in the semiconductor industry and related markets. For more information, please visit www.suss.com/scil
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