Nanoimprint lithography process and patterned substrate obtainable therefrom
AssigneesUniversite D'Aix-Marseille, Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Universite, Universite Paris-Saclay
InventorsDavid Grosso, Marco Faustini, Olivier Dalstein, Andréa Cattoni, Thomas Bottein
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention pertains to the field of nanoimprint lithography (NIL) processes and more specifically to a soft NIL process used for providing a sol-gel patterned layer on a substrate. Specifically, this process comprises a step of adjusting the solvent uptake of the sol-gel film to 10 to 50% vol., preferably between 15 and 40% vol., by varying the relative pressure of the solvent while a soft mould is applied onto the substrate coated with the sol-gel film.
Claims15
A nanoimprint lithography (NIL) process, comprising the successive steps of:
- a) preparing a solution of sol-gel metal or metalloid oxide precursor(s),
- o) performing a calibration step to determine solvent relative pressure that should be applied during replication step d,
- b) applying said solution onto a substrate to form a film,
- c) equilibrating the film with the atmosphere under adjusted solvent vapor pressure, to obtain a gel film,
- d) applying a soft mould onto said gel film to provide an assembly such that said gel film fills up the cavities of the mould, and maintaining said assembly under solvent vapor,
- e) thermally treating said assembly so as to rigidify the gel film thus obtained,
- f) removing the mould to obtain a substrate coated with a patterned gel, and
- g) curing said patterned gel so as to obtain a patterned metal or metalloid oxide material on said substrate,
- wherein the solvent uptake of the film is adjusted to 10 to 50% volume by varying the vapor pressure in a volatile solvent at the vicinity of the film and gel film during steps c) and d) and wherein the gel film does not comprise organic polymers.
A nanoimprint lithography (NIL) process, comprising the successive steps of:
- a) preparing a solution of sol-gel metal or metalloid oxide precursor(s),
- o) performing a calibration step to determine the solvent relative pressure that should be applied during replication step d,
- a′) converting the metal or the metalloid oxide precursors into the metal or the metalloid oxide suspension,
- b) applying said solution onto a substrate to form a film,
- c) equilibrating the film with the atmosphere under adjusted solvent vapor pressure, to obtain a gel film,
- d) applying a soft mould onto said gel film to provide an assembly such that said gel film fills up the cavities of the mould, and maintaining said assembly under solvent vapor,
- e) thermally treating said assembly so as to rigidify the gel film thus obtained, and
- f) removing the mould to obtain a substrate coated with a patterned gel, wherein the solvent uptake of the film is adjusted to 10 to 50% volume by varying the vapor pressure in a volatile solvent at the vicinity of the film and gel film during steps c) and d), and wherein the gel film does not comprise organic polymers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.