smooth and or planar patterning surface 18 may define an original pattern that forms the basis of a pattern to be formed on substrate 12 template 14 may be coupled to an imprint head 20 to facilitate movement of template 14 and therefore mold 16 in a further embodiment template 14 may be coupled to a template chuck not shown the template chuck not shown being any chuck including but not limited to vacuum and electromagnetic a fluid dispense system 22 is coupled to be selectively placed in fluid communication with substrate 12 so as to deposit polymeric material 24 thereon it should be understood that polymeric material 24 may be deposited using any known technique e g drop dispense spin coating dip coating chemical vapor deposition cvd physical vapor deposition pvd and the like a source 26 of energy 28 is coupled to direct energy 28 along a path 30 imprint head 20 and stage 10 are configured to arrange mold 16 and substrate 12 respectively to be in superimposition and disposed in path 30 either imprint head 20 stage 10 or both vary a distance between mold 16 and substrate 12 to define a desired volume therebetween that is filled by polymeric material 24 referring to fig1 and 2 typically polymeric material 24 is disposed upon substrate 12 before the desired volume is defined between mold 16 and substrate 12 however polymeric material 24 may fill the volume after the desired volume has been obtained after.