A Novel Nanoimprint Lithography Thiol-ene Resist for Sub-70 nm Nanostructures

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 779-783
Author(s):  
Man Zhang ◽  
Liang-Ping Xia ◽  
Sui-Hu Dang ◽  
A-Xiu Cao ◽  
Qi-Ling Deng ◽  
...  

In this paper, we propose a novel kind of UV click-polymerization thiol-ene copolymers as nanoimprint lithography resists for sub-70 nm resolution patterns. High-precision mold imprint and release are two of the most critical steps of nanoimprint lithography, which requires the resists with properties of excellent conformal replication and low surface energy. Conventional UV-curable resists used in nanoimprint lithography, such as acrylate, epoxy resin, and vinyl ether, cannot satisfy all these properties requirements because they exhibit surface oxygen inhibition during polymerization, or materials fracture and delamination during mold releasing. A novel kind of thiol-ene copolymers have been investigated in this study, which have many properties favorable for use as nanoimprint lithography resists to imprint sub-70 nm and high-aspect-ratio nanostructures. These properties include sufficiently low viscosity and high Young's modulus, low surface energy for easy demolding, polymerization in benign ambient, and in particular, high chemical-etch resistance. These excellent properties give improve nanoimprinting results.

Polymers ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunfang Zhu ◽  
Haitao Yang ◽  
Hongbo Liang ◽  
Zhengyue Wang ◽  
Jun Dong ◽  
...  

Low surface energy materials have attracted much attention due to their properties and various applications. In this work, we synthesized and characterized a series of ultraviolet (UV)-curable fluorinated siloxane polymers with various fluorinated acrylates—hexafluorobutyl acrylate, dodecafluoroheptyl acrylate, and trifluorooctyl methacrylate—grafted onto a hydrogen-containing poly(dimethylsiloxane) backbone. The structures of the fluorinated siloxane polymers were measured and confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Then the polymers were used as surface modifiers of UV-curable commercial polyurethane (DR-U356) at different concentrations (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 wt %). Among three formulations of these fluorinated siloxane polymers modified with DR-U356, hydrophobic states (91°, 92°, and 98°) were obtained at low concentrations (1 wt %). The DR-U356 resin is only in the hydrophilic state at 59.41°. The fluorine and siloxane element contents were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the results indicated that the fluorinated and siloxane elements were liable to migrate to the surface of resins. The results of the friction recovering assays showed that the recorded contact angles of the series of fluorinated siloxane resins were higher than the original values after the friction-annealing progressing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 723-729
Author(s):  
Junpei Tsuchiya ◽  
Gen Nakagawa ◽  
Shin Hiwasa ◽  
Jun Taniguchi ◽  
◽  
...  

Ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) can be used to fabricate nanoscale patterns with high throughput. It is expected to serve as a low-cost technique for the production of items in large numbers. However, master molds for UV-NIL are expensive and laborious to produce, and there are problems associated with the deterioration of the master mold and damage to its nanopattern due to adhesion of the UV-curable resin. Consequently, the UV-curable resin has to combine low-viscosity characteristics for coatability with an antisticking property. Coating a master mold with a release layer is important in preventing damage to the master mold or adhesion between the mold and the UV-curable resin. However, the released layer deteriorates as the master mold is repeatedly used to fabricate nanopatterns. By contrast, the use of a replica mold is a valuable technique for preventing the deterioration of the master mold, and there have been several studies on the fabrication of replicas of master molds with the use of UV-curable resins. In many cases, the fabrication of nanopatterns with replica molds requires the use of a release agent. In a previous study, we developed a material for replica molds that does not require a release agent. This material consisted of a UV-curable resin with an antifouling effect that was prepared from cationically polymerizable UV-curable and epoxy-modified fluorinated resins. With the use of this material, replica molds with patterns of pillars or holes were fabricated with UV-NIL. The lifetime of the mold with the nanopattern of pillars was shorter than that with holes. In addition, the replica mold with the pillar-shaped nanopattern had numerous defects and allowed adhesion of the transfer resin after repeated efforts. Herein, we describe an improved release-agent-free hard replica mold. We transferred large numbers of nanopatterns of pillars from the replica mold, and evaluated the error rate and contact angle of our improved release-agent-free hard replica mold. The resulting release-agent-free replica mold with a nanopattern of pillars was capable of transferring up to 1000 sequential imprints. In addition, to improve the release properties of the transfer resin, we included an additive to the transfer resin that contained a reactive fluorinated material. This material improved the release properties of the transfer resin and mitigated the deterioration of the contact angle and increase in the error rate.


2007 ◽  
Vol 84 (5-8) ◽  
pp. 984-988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Vogler ◽  
Sabine Wiedenberg ◽  
Michael Mühlberger ◽  
Iris Bergmair ◽  
Thomas Glinsner ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 510-511 ◽  
pp. 462-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Hoon Hong ◽  
Ki Yeon Yang ◽  
Heon Lee

The fabrication of nano-structured materials using nanoimprint lithography has become more prevalent in recent years, due to its cost effectiveness and readiness. However, One of the biggest drawback of this technique is the fabrication of the imprinting stamp, which is expensive and difficult to fabricate. This paper describes a method of replication original Si or quartz made imprinting template into a polymer stamp which has many advantages, such as the simplicity and low cost of the fabrication process and the flexibility of the resulting stamp. Using the hot embossing method, PVC based imprint stamp with sub 100nm patterns can be fabricated. Due to its high UV transmittance, reasonable mechanical hardness and low surface energy, PVC based nanosized template can be used as a stamp for UV-NIL and sub 100nm patterns were successfully transferred by the UV-NIL process with PVC based imprint stamp.


2020 ◽  
Vol 260 ◽  
pp. 126867
Author(s):  
Xinxin Fu ◽  
Wenting Yang ◽  
Mengjia He ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
Zongbin Hao ◽  
...  

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1388
Author(s):  
Jianping Zhou ◽  
Chunfang Zhu ◽  
Hongbo Liang ◽  
Zhengyue Wang ◽  
Hailong Wang

Low surface energy coatings have gained considerable attention due to their superior surface hydrophobic properties. However, their abrasion resistance and sustainability of surface hydrophobicity are still not very satisfactory and need to be improved. In this work, a series of utraviolet (UV)-curable fluorosiloxane copolymers were synthesized and used as reactive additives to prepare polyurethane acrylate coatings with low surface energy. The effect of the addition of the fluorinated graft copolymers on the mechanical durability and surface hydrophobicity of the UV-cured hybrid films during the friction-annealing treatment cycles was investigated. The results show that introducing fluorosiloxane additives can greatly enhance surface hydrophobicity of the hybrid film. With addition of 2 wt.% fluorosiloxane copolymers, the water contact angle (WCA) value of the hybrid film was almost tripled compared to that of the pristine PU film, increasing from 58° to 144°. The hybrid film also showed enhanced abrasion resistance and could withstand up to about 60 times of friction under a pressure of 20 kPa. The microstructure formed in the annealed film was found to contribute much to achieve better surface hydrophobicity. The polyurethane acrylate/fluorinated siloxane resin hybrid film prepared in this study exhibits excellent potential for applications in the low surface energy field.


2006 ◽  
Vol 956 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Tao ◽  
S. Ramachandran ◽  
C. T. Nelson ◽  
L. J. Overzet ◽  
M. J. Goeckner ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTDiamond like carbon (DLC) films were deposited on Si and then patterned to form 40 nm features as nanoimprint templates. A plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system with CH4 precursor was used to deposit DLC films on Si and quartz substrates. Then these films were characterized using Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), nanoindentation, and contact angle measurement. By varying the RF power and pressure of the PECVD, DLC films with good uniformity, smooth surfaces (<0.2 nm RMS), low surface energy (∼40 mJ/m2), and high hardness (∼22 GPa) were achieved. Nanoimprint lithography and liftoff process were used to pattern Cr mask on DLC films. An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching process was performed with CF4 to transfer the patterns into the DLC films to form nanostructured template for nanoimprint. Water contact angles on the patterned DLC templates were measured and it was stable at about 70° under thermal annealing at 180 °C for more than 12 hours. With these DLC templates, UV and reversal UV nanoimprint lithography were carried out on SU-8 at typical imprint conditions and then the fidelity of pattern-transfer was investigated. These experimental results indicate that DLC is an excellent material for nanoimprint templates because of its high wear resistance, robust low surface energy, UV transparency, and ease of patterning.


2008 ◽  
Vol 44 (9) ◽  
pp. 2927-2937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.H. Lin ◽  
K.H. Liao ◽  
N.K. Chou ◽  
S.S. Wang ◽  
S.H. Chu ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
Vol 774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice L. McKenzie ◽  
Michael C. Waid ◽  
Riyi Shi ◽  
Thomas J. Webster

AbstractSince the cytocompatibility of carbon nanofibers with respect to neural applications remains largely uninvestigated, the objective of the present in vitro study was to determine cytocompatibility properties of formulations containing carbon nanofibers. Carbon fiber substrates were prepared from four different types of carbon fibers, two with nanoscale diameters (nanophase, or less than or equal to 100 nm) and two with conventional diameters (or greater than 200 nm). Within these two categories, both a high and a low surface energy fiber were investigated and tested. Astrocytes (glial scar tissue-forming cells) and pheochromocytoma cells (PC-12; neuronal-like cells) were seeded separately onto the substrates. Results provided the first evidence that astrocytes preferentially adhered on the carbon fiber that had the largest diameter and the lowest surface energy. PC-12 cells exhibited the most neurites on the carbon fiber with nanodimensions and low surface energy. These results may indicate that PC-12 cells prefer nanoscale carbon fibers while astrocytes prefer conventional scale fibers. A composite was formed from poly-carbonate urethane and the 60 nm carbon fiber. Composite substrates were thus formed using different weight percentages of this fiber in the polymer matrix. Increased astrocyte adherence and PC-12 neurite density corresponded to decreasing amounts of the carbon nanofibers in the poly-carbonate urethane matrices. Controlling carbon fiber diameter may be an approach for increasing implant contact with neurons and decreasing scar tissue formation.


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