Single-nanometer accurate 3D nanoimprint lithography with master templates fabricated by NanoFrazor lithography

Abstract

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is one of the most promising technology platforms for replication of nanometer and micrometer scale 3D topographies with extremely high resolution and throughput, as needed for e.g. photonic or optical applications. One of the remaining challenges of 3D NIL, however, is the fabrication of high quality 3D master originals – the initial patterns that are replicated multiple times in the NIL process. Here, we demonstrate a joint solution for 3D NIL where NanoFrazor thermal scanning probe lithography (t-SPL) is used to pattern the master templates with singlenanometer accurate 3D topographies. 3D topographies from polymer resist master templates are replicated using a HERCULES NIL system with SmartNIL technology. Furthermore, 3D patterns are transferred from the resist into a silicon substrate via reactive ion etching (RIE) and the resulting silicon master template is used for producing polymeric working stamps into OrmoStamp and, finally, replicas into optical grade OrmoClearFX material. Both replication strategies result in very high-quality replicas of the original patterns.