• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.672-675
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• 2005

To imprint 70-nm wide line-patterns, we used a newly developed ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) process in which an elementwise patterned stamp (EPS), a large-area stamp, and pressurized air are used to imprint a wafer in a single step. For a single-step UV-NIL of a 4' wafer, we fabricated two identical $5'\times5'\times0.09'(W{\times}L{\times}H)$ quartz EPSs, except that one is with nanopatterns and the other without nanopatterns. Both of them consist of 16 small-area stamps, called elements, each of which is $10\;mm\;\times\;10\;mm$. UV-curable low-viscosity resin droplets were dispensed directly on each element of the EPSs. The volume and viscosity of each droplet are 3.7 nl and 7 cps. Droplets were dispensed in such a way that no air entrapment between elements and wafer occurs. When the droplets were fully pressed between ESP and wafer, some incompletely filled elements were observed because of the topology mismatch between EPS and wafer. To complete those incomplete fillings, pressurized air of 2 bar was applied to the bottom of the wafer for 2 min. Experimental results have shown that nanopatterns of the EPS were successfully transferred to the resin layer on the wafer.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.1849-1856
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• 2010

Glass/resin/glass laminate structures are used in the automobile, biological, and display industries. The sandwich structures are used in the micro/nanoimprint process to fabricate a variety of functional components and devices in fields such as display, optics, MEMS, and bioindustry. In the process, micrometer- or nanometer-scale patterns are transferred onto the substrate using UV curing resins. The demodling process has an important impact on productivity. In this study, we investigated the fracture behavior of glass/resin/glass laminates fabricated via UV curing. We performed measurements of the adhesion force and the interfacial energy between the mold and resin materials using the four-point flexural test. The bending-test measurements and the load-displacement curves of the laminates indicate that the fracture behavior is influenced by the interfacial energy between the mold and resin and the resin thickness.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.182-189
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• 2006

In this paper, the adhesion characteristics between a fused silica without or with an anti-sticking layer and a thermoplastic polymer film used in thermal NIL were investigated experimentally in order to identify the release performance of the anti-sticking layer. The anti-sticking layers were derived from fluoroalkylsilanes, (1H, 1 H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctyl)trichlorosilane ($F_{13}-OTS$) and (3, 3, 3-trifluoropropyl)trichlorosilane (FPTS), and coated on the silica surface in vapor phase. The commercial polymers, mr-I 7020 and 8020 (micro resist technology, GmbH), for thermal NIL were spin-coated on Si substrate with a rectangular island which was fabricated by conventional microfabrication process to achieve small contact area and easy alignment of flat contact sur- faces. Experimental conditions were similar to the process conditions of thermal NIL. When the polymer film on the island was separated from the silica surface after imprint process, the adhesion force between the silica surface and the polymer film was measured and the surfaces of the silica and the polymer film after the separation were observed. As a result, the anti-sticking layers remarkably reduced the adhesion force and the surface damage of polymer film and the chain length of silane affects the adhesion characteristics. The anti-sticking layers derived from FPTS and $F_{13}-OTS$ reduced the adhesion force per unit area to 38% and 16% of the silica sur-faces without an anti-sticking layer, respectively. The anti-sticking layer derived from $F_{13}-OTS$ was more effective to reduce the adhesion, while both of the anti-sticking layers prevented the surface damages of the polymer film. Finally, it is also found that the adhesion characteristics of mr-I 7020 and mr-I 8020 polymer films were similar with each other.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.636-641
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• 2012

In this study, we have investigated highly efficient nanoscale surface corrugated light emitting diodes (LEDs) for the enhancement of light extraction efficiency (LEE) of nitride semiconductor LEDs. Nanoscale indium tin oxide (ITO) surface corrugations are fabricated by using the conformal nanoimprint technique; it was possible to observe an enhancement of LEE for the ITO surface corrugated LEDs. By incorporating this novel method, we determined that the total output power of the surface corrugated LEDs were enhanced by 45.6% for patterned sapphire substrate LEDs and by 41.9% for flat c-plane substrate LEDs. The enhancement of LEE through nanoscale surface corrugations was studied using 3-dimensional Finite Different Time Domain (FDTD) calculation. From the FDTD calculations, we were able to separate the light extraction from the top and bottom sides of device. This process revealed that light extraction from the top and bottom sides of a device strongly depends on the substrate and the surface corrugation. We found that enhanced LEE could be understood through the mechanism of enhanced light transmission due to refractive index matching and the increase of light scattering from the corrugated surface. LEE calculations for the encapsulated LEDs devices also revealed that low LEE enhancement is expected after encapsulation due to the reduction of the refractive index contrast.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2013

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is the next generation photolithography process in which the photoresist is dispensed onto the substrate in its liquid form and then imprinted and cured into a desired pattern instead of using traditional optical system. There have been considerable attentions on NIL due to its potential abilities that enable cost-effective and high-throughput nanofabrication to the display device and semiconductor industry. Although one of the current major research trends of NIL is large-area patterning, the technical difficulties to keep the uniformity of the residual layer become severer as the imprinting area increases more and more. In this paper, with the rolling type imprinting process, a mold, placed upon the $2^{nd}$ generation TFT-LCD glass sized substrate($370{\times}470mm^2$), is rolled by a rubber roller to achieve a uniform residual layer. The prediction of residual layer thickness of the photoresist by rolling of the rubber roller is crucial to design the rolling type imprinting process, determine the rubber roller operation conditions-mpressing force & feeding speed, operate smoothly the following etching process, and so forth. First, using the elasticity theory of contact problem and the empirical equation of rubber hardness, the contact length between rubber roller and mold is calculated with consideration of the shape and hardness of rubber roller and the pressing force to rubber roller. Next, using the squeeze flow theory to photoresist flow, the residual layer thickness of the photoresist is calculated with information of the viscosity and initial layer thickness of photoresist, the shape of mold pattern, feeding speed of rubber roller, and the contact length between rubber roller and mold previously calculated. Last, the effects of rubber roller operation conditions, impressing force & feeding speed, on the residual layer thickness are analyzed with consideration of the shape and hardness of rubber roller.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.96-104
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• 2010

We suggest here a cost-effective replica fabrication method for transparent and hard molds for imprinting lithography such as NIL and S-FIL. The process starts with the use of a replica hard mold from a master, using a polymer copy as a carrier. The polymer copy as a carrier was treated by soluble process for forming anti-adhesion layer. Duplicated hard molds can eliminate direct contact between a hard master and a patterned polymer on a substrate and the generated contamination of a master during the imprinting process. The replica hard mold exhibits the glass-like properties introduced here, such as transparency and hardness, make it appropriate for nanoimprint lithography and step-and-flash imprint lithography.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.433-437
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• 2007

A constant desire has been to fabricate nanopatterns for biochip and the Ultraviolet-nano imprint lithography (UV-NIL) is promising technology especially compared with thermal type in view of cost effectiveness. By using this method, nano-scale to micro-scale structures also called nanopore structures can be fabricated on large scale gold plate at normal conditions such as room temperature or low pressure which is not possible in thermal type lithography. One of the most important methods in fabricating biochips, immobilizing, was processed successfully by using this technology. That means immobilizing proteins only on the nanopore structures based on gold, not on hardened resin by UV is now possible by utilizing this method. So this selective nano-patterning process of protein can be useful method fabricating nanoscale protein chip.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.255-263
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• 2008

Adhesion tests were conducted to investigate the adhesion characteristics between mold and thermoplastic polymer film. Coating of anti-sticking layer (ASL), a kind of polymer material, imprint pressure, and separation velocity were considered as the process conditions. A piece of fused silica without patterns on its surface was used as a mold and the thermoplastic polymer films were made on Si substrate by spin-coating the commercial polymer solution such as mr-I PMMA and mr-I 7020. The ASL was derived from (1H, 1H, 2H, 2H - perfluorooctyl) trichlorosilane($F_{13}$-OTS) and coated on the fused silica mold in vapor phase. The pull-off force was measured in various process conditions and the surfaces of the mold and the polymer film were observed after separation. It was found that the adhesion characteristics between the mold and the thermoplastic polymer film and the release performance of ASL were changed according to the process conditions. The ASL was effective to reduce the pull-off force and the damage of polymer film. In cases of the mold coated with ASL, the pull-off force did not depend on imprint pressure and separation velocity.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.113-117
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• 2020

In this paper, We investigated the effect of heat treatment process using photo-thermal effect in order to improve mechanical properties of nanostructure on polymer films made by nanoimprint process with hybrid resin. Nanostructures which have a low refractive characteristic were fabricated by UV nanoimprint and after that heat treatment was performed using IPL (intense pulsed light) under process condition of 550 V voltage, pulse width 5 ms, frequency 0.5 Hz. The transmittance and mechanical property of fabricated nanostructure films were evaluated to observe changes in the pattern transfer rate and mechanical properties of nanostructures. The transmittance of the nanostructure was measured at 97.6% at 550 nm wavelength. Nanoindentation was performed to identify improved anti-scatch properties. Result was compared by the heat source. In case of post treatment with IPL, hardness was 0.51 GPa and in the case of hotplate was 0.27 GPa, resulting the increase of hardness of 1.8 times. Elastic modulus of IPL treated sample was 5.9GPa and Hotplate treated one was 4GPa, showing the 1.4 time increase.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.199-206
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• 2022

We present the high-brightness large-area 10.1" in-cell polarizer display panel integrated with a wire grid polarizer (WGP) and metal reflector, from the initial design to final system development in a commercially feasible level. We have modeled and developed the WGP architecture integrated with the metal reflector in a single in-cell layer, to achieve excellent polarization efficiency as well as brightness enhancement through the light recycling effect. After the optimization of key experimental parameters via Taguchi method, the roll nanoimprint lithography employing a flexible large-area tiled mold has been utilized to create the 90 nm-pitch polymer resist pattern with the 54.1 nm linewidth and 5.1 nm residual layer thickness. The 90 nm-pitch Al gratings with the 51.4 nm linewidth and 2150 Å height have been successfully fabricated after subsequent etch process, providing the in-cell WGPs with high optical performance in the entire visible light regime. Finally we have integrated the WGP in a commercial 10.1" display device and demonstrated its actual operation, exhibiting 1.24 times enhancement of brightness compared to a conventional film polarizer-based one, with the contrast ratio of 1,004:1. Polarization efficiency and transmittance of the developed WGPs in an in-cell polarizer panel achieve 99.995 % and 42.3 %, respectively.