• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.513-520
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• 2011

The NIL processes have been studied to implement low cost, high throughput and high resolution application. A RNIL(roller NIL) is an alternative approach to flat nanoimprint lithography. RNIL process is necessary to transfer patterns on flexible substrates. Compared with flat NIL, RNIL has the advantages of better uniformity, less pressing force, and the ability to repeat the patterning process continuously on a large substrate. This paper studies the design, construction and verification of a thermal RNIL system. The proposed RNIL system can easily adopt the flat shaped hot plate which is one of the most important technologies for NIL. The NIL system can be used to transfer patterns from a flexible stamp to a flexible substrate, from a flexible stamp to a Si substrate, and from a roller stamp to a flexible substrate, etc. Patterning on flexible substrates is one of the key technologies to produce bendable displays, solar cells and other applications.

• 전기의세계
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• v.56 no.10
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• pp.34-38
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1939-1943
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• 2008

Deformation of a mold is measured and analyzed in alignment and curing processes of UV-Imprint Lithography. We are focused on mold deformation caused by a UV resin, which is laminated between a mold and a target glass-panel. The UV resin is viscous in case of liquid state, and the resin will be solidified when being exposed by the ultra-violet light. The viscosity of the resin causes shear force on the mold during the alignment process. Moreover, the shrinkage during phase change from liquid to solid may cause residual stress on the mold. The experiments for measuring temperature and strain are made during alignment and curing process. Strain-gages and thermocouples are used for measuring the strain and variation of temperature on several points of the mold, respectively. The deformation of mold is also simulated and analyzed. The simulation results are compared with the experiments. Finally, sources of alignment errors in large area UV-nanoimprint lithography are discussed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.410-415
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• 2004

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoimprint lithography in which a stamp with patterns is pressed onto amorphous poly-(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) surface are performed to study the deformation of polymer. Force fields including bond, angle, torsion, inversion, van der Waals and electrostatic potential are used to describe the intermolecular and intramolecular force of PMMA molecules and stamp. Periodic boundary condition is used in horizontal direction and $Nos\acute{e}$-Hoover thermostat is used to control the system temperature. As the simulation results, the adhesion forces between stamp and polymer are calculated and the mechanism of deformation are investigated. The effects of the adhesion force and friction force on the polymer deformation are also studied to analyze the pattern transfer in nanoimprint lithography. The mechanism of polymer deformation is investigated by means of inspecting the indentation process, molecular configurational properties, and molecular configurational energies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1119-1122
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• 2004

In the UV-NIL process using an elementwise patterned stamp (EPS), which includes channels formed to separate each element with patterns, low-viscosity resin droplets with a nano-liter volume are dispensed on all elements of the EPS. Following pressing of the EPS, the EPS is illuminated with UV light to cure the resin; and then the EPS is separated from several thin patterned elements on a wafer. Experiments on UV-NIL were performed on an EVG620-NIL. 50 － 70 nm features of the EPS were successfully transferred to 4 in. wafers. Especially, the wafer deformation during imprint was analyzed using the finite element method (FEM) in order to study the effect of the wafer deformation on the UV-NIL using EPS.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.343-348
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• 2007

Molecular dynamics study of thermal NIL (Nano Imprint Lithography) process is performed to examine stamp-resist interactions. A layered structure consists of Ni stamp, poly-(methylmethacrylate) thin film resist and Si substrate was constructed for isothermal ensemble simulations. Imposing confined periodicity to the layered unit-cell, sequential movement of stamp followed by NVT simulation was implemented in accordance with the real NIL process. Both vdW and electrostatic potentials were considered in all non-bond interactions and resultant interaction energy between stamp and PMMA resist was monitored during stamping and releasing procedures. As a result, the stamp-resist interaction energy shows repulsive and adhesive characteristics in indentation and release respectively and irregular atomic concentration near the patterned layer were observed. Also, the spring back and rearrangement of PMMA molecules were analyzed in releasing process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.196-198
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• 2003

Classical lithography in semiconductor employs stepper technologies. Limits of this technology are clearly seen at structures below 100nm. Nano-imprinting lithography is a new method for generating patterns in submicron range at reasonable cost. In order to manufacture nano-imprinting lithography(NIL) equipment, several NIL manufacturers have been developing key technologies for realization of nano-imprinting process, recently. In this paper, we've been describe state-of-the-art and technology trends for nano-imprinting lithography equipments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.199-202
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• 2003

Ultraviolet-nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) is a promising method for cost-effectively defining nanoscale structures at room temperature and low pressure. Since the resolution of nanostructures depends strongly upon that of nanostamps, the nanostamp fabrication technology is a key technology to UV-NIL. In this paper, a 5$\times$5$\times$0.09 in. quartz stamp whose critical dimension is 377 nm was fabricated using the etch process in which a Cr film was employed as a hard mask for transferring nanostructures onto the quartz plate. To effectively apply tile fabricated 5-in. stamp to UV-NIL on a 4-in. Si wafer, we have proposed a new UV-NIL process using a multi-dispensing method as a way to supply resist on a wafer Experiments have shown that the multi-dispensing method can enable UV-NIL rising a large-area stamp.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.6 s.237
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• pp.852-859
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• 2005

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoimprint lithography in which a stamp with patterns is pressed onto amorphous poly-(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) surface are performed to study the deformation of polymer. Force fields including bond, angle, torsion, inversion, van der Waals and electrostatic potential are used to describe the intermolecular and intramolecular force of PMMA molecules and stamp. Periodic boundary condition is used in horizontal direction and Nose-Hoover thermostat is used to control the system temperature. As the simulation results, the adhesion forces between stamp and polymer are calculated and the mechanism of deformation are investigated. The effects of the adhesion and friction forces on the polymer deformation are also studied to analyze the pattern transfer in nanoimprint lithography. The mechanism of polymer deformation is investigated by means of inspecting the indentation process, molecular configurational properties, and molecular configurational energies.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.144-153
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• 2009

It is widely known that no-slip assumptions are often violated on regular basis in micrometer- or nanometer-scale fluid flow. In the case of cavity-filling process of nanoimprint lithography(NIL), slip phenomena take place naturally at the solid-to-liquid boundaries, that is, at the mold-to-polymer or polymer-to-substrate boundaries. If the slip or partial slip phenomena are promoted at the boundaries, the processing time of NIL, especially of thermal-NIL which consumes more tact time than that of UV-NIL, can be significantly improved. In this paper it is aimed to elucidate how the cavity-filling process of NIL can be influenced by the slip phenomena at boundaries and to what degree those phenomena increase the process rate. To do so, computational fluid dynamics(CFD) analysis of cavity filling process has been carried out. Also, the effect of mold pattern shape and initial thickness of polymer resist were considered in the analysis, as well.