NanoImprint Lithography

Presented by
Group 7
Moore’s Law: The number of transistors in a chip would double
roughly every 2 years.

Gordon Moore

2
 Optical lithography

Optical lithography is a process

used in microfabrication to
selectively remove parts of a
thin film or the bulk of a
substrate. It uses light to
transfer a geometric pattern
from a photomask to a light
sensitive chemical "photoresist“
on the substrate.
 Drawbacks Of Photolithography
1.Smaller Feature sizes makes photo lithography extremely challenging and
expensive
2.Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography
3.Extraordinary challenging chip designs
4.Complex multi-patterning processes
5.Increase in cycle time and cost
6.Lower devise yield
7.Diffusion of light

SOLUTION?
In e-beam lithography excessive time and money
NanoImprint Lithography

(NIL)
could be the Future

What Is NanoImprint
Lithography?

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is an

inexpensive way of manufacturing
miniature devises
 Basics of Nanoimprint
1. Thermoplastic Polymer is
spun on to the wafer surface
2. Then a mold with
nanostructures on its surface is
brought to contact with sample
and pressed under certain
pressure
3. Then polymer is heated up
beyond the glass transition
temperature, and the pattern of
the mold is pressed onto the
softened polymer film
4. The whole stack is cooled and
the mold is separated from the
sample
5. A pattern transfer process,
Reactive Ion Etch (RIE), is
used to transfer the pattern
onto the substrate
Silicon
Mold

PMMA

Metal
Substrate
 History
• Nanoimprint lithography was
developed by Professor Stephen
Y. Chou and his students at
Princeton University
• NIL was first demonstrated in
1995 when Dr. Chou and his
group made vias and trenches
with a minimum size of 25nm,
and 100nm Depth
• Also created sub 25nm quantum
dots
• Published his paper in 1996

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 PARAMETERS

NIL process has 3 important parameters that need to be considered

1. Substrate

2. Patterning materials
3. Imprint parameters

1. sUBSTRATE

 Size and shape

Size from a few millimeters to 8 inch
wafers
Most common shapes are round and
square
 Materials
Most common substrate materials are
semiconductor (especially silicon),
Silicon dioxide (glass and quartz), and
polymer
 2.pATTERNING MATERIALS
 Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) most common imprint material
(type of polymer)
 Lift-Off Resist (LOR)
mr-L 6000 – multi-purpose material used in T-NIL, P-NIL, and
EBL
mr-l 9000 – methacrylate polymer base

WHAT IS
PMMA?
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a transparent thermoplastic ,often used as a
light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass.
 3. iMPRINT PARAMETERS
 Temperature

• Depends on pattern material and stamp/substrate material

Pressure
• Viscosity of pattern material determines the choice of
imprint pressure
• High density or large structures need higher pressure

Hold time
• Viscosity of pattern material and density and size of the
structures determine the duration
Release temperature
• Tg temperature is the main parameter for choosing release
temperature
• It is important to be bellow Tg, otherwise polymer will
deform after separation
Forgetting One of the Most Important Things?

Stamps(Mold)
MOLD MADE OF NANOTECHNOLOG
THAT’S WHY IT IS CALLED
NANOIMPRINTED LITHOGRAPHY

Mask/mold

Microscopic View
 Stamps (Mold)
The most important part of a working imprint process
three key components in stamp manufacturing process are
1.Substrate material
2. patterning method and
3.anti-sticking layer are

FIRST: Substrate material

 Most common substrate material: Silicon, Silicon

Dioxide, Polymers, Quartz, Nickel, and Diamond
 Silicon based stamps are the most common types
used today
SECOND: Different patterning methods of MOLD

 Electron beam lithography (EBL)

 Ultra violet lithography (UVL)
 Laser lithography
 Atomic force microscope lithography (AFM)
 X-ray Lithography
THIRD: Anti-sticking layer

 As imprint feature sizes reduce, pattern density

rises, polymer sticking will become a problem.
 To avoid this stamp/polymer interaction forces
have to be reduced using the following
methods:
Depositing a monolayer of molecules on
stamp surface
Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) used
for Si-based stamps
Depositing a polymer layer on stamp
surface
Include anti-sticking molecules in imprint
material
 Types of NanoImprint
Lithography
1.Thermoplastic Nanoimprint lithography (T-NIL)
2. Photo Nanoimprint lithography(P-NIL)
3.Direct Patterning

1. Thermoplastic nanoimprint l ithography

 Earliest form of NIL, and the most well documented in research papers
 Also called Hot Embossing
•The strips, which are 70 nm wide and
200 nm deep
•Vertical sidewalls nearly 90 ° ,which is
quite impossible with optical lithography
•Perfectly matches with MOLD after RIE
•25 nm diameter dots with a 120 nm period
lifted off from the PMMA template of 25 nm
diameter holes made by imprint lithography
•Both of these fabrication processes are
described in length in CHOU’s paper
 Types of NanoImprint
Lithography
2.Photo Nanoimprint lithography

– Most used in industrial research

– Also called Cold Embossing
• Liquid curable photo resist (low viscosity
monomer) is applied to the substrate
• A Transparent mold made of
nanotechnology is pressed into the liquid
• The mold is exposed to UV light curing
the resist and solidifying it
• The mold is removed and a RIE is used
to transfer the pattern to the substrate
• Possibility to reach industry throughput
requirement of about 50 wafers/hour
• Sometimes combination of thermoplastic
and optical lithography

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 Types of NanoImprint
Lithography
3.Direct Patterning
– Not as important as P-NIL and T-NIL
• Patterned without polymer in a one step imprint process
• Laser Assisted Direct Imprinting (LADI) uses a laser to radiate on the
substrate which is in contact with mold
– Quartz mold is used to do the imprint due to transparent properties
• Laser radiates onto the silicon, the near-surface is heated and melts
• Cooling and solidification of the molten layer, transforms patterns of the
mold to the silicon

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What makes NIL “unique and better “ than optical lithography?

1.Unlike conventional lithography methods, imprint lithography itself does not use
any energetic beams. Therefore, nanoimprint lithography’s resolution is not limited by
the effects of wave diffraction, scattering and interference in a resist, and
backscattering from a substrate.
2.X-ray or E-beam compensates many problems but very costly and time consuming.
3.For absence of electron beam or optical source considerably low cost.
4.Furthermore, imprint lithography is fundamentally different from stamping using a
monolayer of self-assembled molecules.
5. Imprint lithography is more of a physical process than a chemical process.
Chemistry of photo resist or other chemicals aren’t involved here.
6.It is conceivable that in the future, the mold used in imprint lithography can be
made using a high-resolution but low-throughput lithography, and then imprint
lithography can be used for low-cost mass production of nanostructures.
7.Low cost ownership.
8.High throughput.
9.Process Simplicity
10.Multiple metal layers in one step
E-BEAM Lithography or UV
lithography is still needed!!

Yes, the mold or mask is created by E-Beam process

BUT (which gives the process an edge)
1.A mold can be used multiple times for repeated generation which can’t be
possible in E-beam lithography.
2.It gives a great advantage for gross level production.
3. gross level production is also possible by optical lithography but it has the
problem of diffraction, scattering and interference in a resist.
4.NIL solves all these problems.
5.By nanoimprinting lithography smaller and complex feature sizes are possible
more precisely than optical lithography.
6.It needs low temperature and pressure.
 Some Important Facts From Various Papers and Journals

Glass-transition temperature of PMMA is about 105 °C.

So in imprinting process temperature requirement varies from 140° to 180 °
In imprinting stage pressure varies from 600 to 1900 psi.
RIE is an important step which required 400w power and 90m torr pressure in
CHOU’s very first experiment.
Chou and his group has repeated a mold more than 30 times and didn’t find any
distortion in pattern.
Care should be taken not to touch the mold with substrate which will distort the
mold and will make it less durable.
 LIMITATIONS

1.Overlay Structure Accuracy

2.Thermal expansion effects
3.Edges of the sample does not replicate
well (Typically Small substrates)
4.Mold removal step (Yield killing step)

PMMA has a small thermal expansion coefficient of 5×10-5per °C and a small pressure
shrinkage coefficient of 3.8×10-7per psi.
Mold release agents were added into the resists and worked well to reduce the resist
adhesion to the mold.

So these problems are not quite severe

 Challenge of future Researchers
To invent or discover other resists except PMMA which can further decrease
Temperature and pressure.
Improved Resist can also make removal of mold easier.
Thermal expansion problem can be solved further.
Very recent study has fabricated lowest 5 nm feature size. It can be also improved.
To press the mold uniformly over substrate present technology use primitive machine.
In these machines, highest 10 inch diameter wafer can be processed. Advanced research
and technology could make instruments which can press over larger wafer uniformly.
 Specialized Applications
• NIL has the potential to replace
traditional photolithography in IC’s
• Photo Lithography tools are the
most expensive tools in a
factory
• NIL can be used to created very dense
memory chips
• Discrete Track Recording
(DTR) technique
• NIL can be used to create very small
nano structures
• Replication of 3D objects such
as MEMs components
• Smart Sensors for Microelectronics
• Sensors for light, temperature,
molecules, even DNA or
Genetic diseases.

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 Conclusion
NanoImprint lithography could be the future of pattern transfer in IC’s

From 2006 Toshiba Electronics has started fabrication in various stages

through Nanoimprint Lithography

Instruments, machines and chemicals still forced the fabrication process

dependent on traditional system

The main challenge of implementing large scale nanoimprinting

lithography Process is fabrication of mold and sophisticated pressing
machines

Future of Nanoimprintig lithography is obviously promising

 WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO
ANSWER ANY of YOUR
QUERRIES.

THANK YOU