A Study on the Uniformity Improvement of Residual Layer of a Large Area Nanoimprint Lithography

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is one of the most versatile and promising technology for micro/nano-patterning due to its simplicity, high throughput and low cost. Recently, one of the major trends of NIL is large-area patterning. Especially, the research of the application of NIL to TFT-LCD field has been increasing. Technical difficulties to keep the uniformity of the residual layer, however, become severer as the imprinting area increases. In this paper we performed a numerical study for a large area NIL (the $2^nd$ generation TFT-LCD glass substrate ($370{\times}470$ mm)) by using finite element method. First, a simple model considering the surrounding wall was established in order to simulate effectively and reduce the computing time. Then, the volume of fluid (VOF) and grid deformation method were utilized to calculate the free surfaces of the resist flow based on an Eulerian grid system. From the simulation, the velocity fields and the imprinting pressure during the filling process in the NIL were analyzed, and the effect of the surrounding wall and the uniformity of residual layer were investigated.