Nanoimprint - what are the benefits?
Nanoimprint is a novel, low-cost technique for large area surface patterning in the nanometer regime. The main representatives of this technique, thermal nanoimprint (T-NIL) as well as UV-nanoimprint (UV-NIL), are introduced and contrasted with respect to the processing technique and material requirements. Common characteristic aspects are addressed to indicate the specific differences of this mechanical approach compared to conventional, optically oriented ones. The use of ordinary photoresists for nanoimprint provides exciting processing alternatives.
Nanotechnology focus on a range of issues to improve the performance, multi-functionality, integration, and sustainability in a variety of emerging applications. This will result in a suite of new manufactured devices and systems with unprecedented properties and functionality. The developed devices should have a widespread impact in health, information, energy and many other fields. However, there are many factors to be considered and challenges to be overcome in adopting nanotechnologies especially the manufacturability and cost to produce these devices in high volume. Pressure from the nanotechnology industry drives the development of manufacturing tools, for the continued growth of nanotechnology as a whole. Using the most powerful tools available, like Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL), is essential for success. Nanoimprint lithography is especially well suited as flexible, low cost and high throughput micro- and nanoscale device and systems manufacturing technology. Itâ??s unique advantage is that topological-, chemical- and biological patterns can be generated at the micro- and nanometer scale. Thus the ability to control high volume fabrication processes and maintain resolution flexibility could lead to new devices with innovative properties. Several patterning techniques allow the fabrication of arbitrary or periodic patterns with sub-micron resolution; however Nanoimprint shows the biggest potential to drive nanodevices from lab scale to commercial products.
Roll-to-roll embossing is an established industrial process for products like holograms and functional surfaces. The road towards R2R-nanoimprint lithography is paved with numerous technical and practical challenges, which stem from the large area that needs to be structured as well as the nature of commonly used flexible substrates. This talk will give an overview of the requirements for reliable and reproducible nanopatterning processes at the micrometer and sub-micrometer scale suitable for large scale manufacturing. Application examples will highlight the potential of this process route.
This presentation will focus on our experience with HoloPrintÂ® as a roll-2-roll high volume replication technology for diffractive surface relief structures in the graphics industry and the virtues of replicating micro- and nano surface reliefs using light curable resins.
We will also address the possibility of scalable HoloPrintÂ® units for use as tabletop replication systems in labs involved in micro- and nanofabrication of surface relief structures.
In the field of medical diagnostics and life science, the interest in microfluidic applications is continuously increasing, for reasons of faster test results, lower sample volumes and lower costs. Moreover these advantages make point of care diagnostics possible which enables patients to make their own diagnosis at home. In that context, we will summarize a typical fabrication process of microfluidic lab-on-chip polymer devices for medical applications beginning from design to the final product. The main focus will be on the lithography methods to manufacture forming tools (stamps) for injection molding and Nano-imprint. One of our core technologies in that field is the ?Phase Transition Mastering?, which was developed to realize features size down to 150nm for the BluRay Disc fabrication. The second part of the presentation will cover the replication and bonding of high aspect ratio microstructures, which are typically used as filters in microfluidic devices or anchor points for DNA sequencing.
Nanoimprint lithography has been introduced as a promising patterning technology in many fields: from photonic to electronic, from security to bio applications. Many nanoimprint techniques are known and a corresponding high number of different imprint tools is on the market. Accordingly, stamps of many kinds are needed and they are quite different in terms of material, form factor, resolution, aspect ratio, feature profile etc. The presentation gives an overview on stamp manufacturing using e-beam and optical lithography, using silicon and quartz substrates and shows capabilities and limitations of those different technologies.
The market of mobile devices is driven by the need of ever more capabilities. We want more pixels and larger screens, more connections to other people, cars or homes, more sensors, more customization. The demand for novel Imaging, Sensing and Light Systems is increasing. This requires ever more integration and miniaturization of optical and opto-electronic systems for cell phones, tablets, smart TVs and other smart devices. Heptagon succeeds in building such highly integrated and small size modules by three levels of integration.
One of the current challenges in three-dimensional micro- and nano- structuration is to implement a standard cost-efficient, parallel and high resolution fabrication technology capable of 3D patterning with minimum lithography steps. In this talk, the realization of complex three-dimensional stamps for nanoimprint lithography will be presented to replicate 3D structures in a single step on 8" and 12" wafers. Their implementations in optical applications as micro-lenses, Fresnel lenses, LEDs and solar cells will be discussed.
What makes NIL a manufacturing technology? It must have a unique selling point (USP) and offer a better Cost of Ownership (CoO) than other technologies, or simply do something what cannot be done with other techniques. After development of many single steps in the process chain from origination, mastering, upscaling to mass fabrication towards a variety of end-applications in research institutions, it is, however, not often clear whether USP and CoO can be met. Throughput and yield are important criteria, but it becomes necessary that industry is able to build up these process chains either in-house, by using services or networking approaches. Although many processes bear similarities, which makes standardization possible, NIL is not simply another lithography method. It is a toolbox of processes with a lot of options. This gives you opportunities, but does not always make life easy. In the future we have therefore still to work more on networking approaches and close the gaps in the process chain. This means that we need a large variety of materials, availability and access to unique process tools and ability to use services for single process steps. In my talk I will not answer all these questions, but will give examples about experiences from network approaches such as NaPANIL.