Multilevel nanoimprint lithography with submicron alignment over 4 in. Si wafers

We demonstrate that multilevel nanoimprint lithography (NIL) with submicron alignment over an entire 4 in. Si wafer can be achieved. Average alignment accuracy of 1 μm with a standard deviation 0.4 μm in both X and Y directions was obtained in ten consecutive tests of multilevel NIL. The multilevel alignment was achieved by aligning the wafer and the mask with an aligner, fixing them with a holder, and imprinting in an imprint machine. The issues that are critical to the alignment accuracy, such as relative movement during the press, relative thermal expansion, wafer bending, and resist, are discussed. The alignment accuracy currently achieved on the system is limited by the aligning accuracy of the aligner, instead of the process of multilevel NIL.

[1]  Jian Wang,et al.  Fabrication of circular optical structures with a 20 nm minimum feature size using nanoimprint lithography , 2000 .

[2]  Stephen Y. Chou,et al.  Imprint of sub-25 nm vias and trenches in polymers , 1995 .

[3]  P. Signoret,et al.  Direct printing of gratings on sol-gel layers , 1998 .

[4]  Hella-Christin Scheer,et al.  Problems of the nanoimprinting technique for nanometer scale pattern definition , 1998 .

[5]  O. Wood,et al.  Novel alignment system for imprint lithography , 2000 .

[6]  S. Iraj Najafi,et al.  Ultraviolet light imprinted sol-gel silica glass low-loss waveguides for use at 1.55 um , 1997 .

[7]  Lars Montelius,et al.  Nanoimprint lithography at the 6 in. wafer scale , 2000 .

[8]  M. Kamp,et al.  Fabrication of quantum point contacts by imprint lithography and transport studies , 2000 .

[9]  Zhaoning Yu,et al.  Reflective polarizer based on a stacked double-layer subwavelength metal grating structure fabricated using nanoimprint lithography , 2000 .

[10]  G. Boreman,et al.  Comparison of infrared frequency selective surfaces fabricated by direct-write electron-beam and bilayer nanoimprint lithographies , 2000 .

[11]  Hong H. Lee,et al.  Wafer-scale sub-micron lithography , 1999 .

[12]  Stephen Y. Chou,et al.  Imprint lithography with sub-10 nm feature size and high throughput , 1997 .

[13]  D. Khang,et al.  Room-temperature imprint lithography by solvent vapor treatment , 2000 .

[14]  Hella-Christin Scheer,et al.  New polymer materials for nanoimprinting , 2000 .

[15]  Jian Wang,et al.  Fabrication of a new broadband waveguide polarizer with a double-layer 190 nm period metal-gratings using nanoimprint lithography , 1999 .

[16]  R. Ruoff,et al.  Bilayer, nanoimprint lithography , 2000 .