Capillary imprinting technique

A method of patterning a substrate, positioned on a motion stage, with a template having a mold, said method comprising:

• positioning conformable material between said substrate and said mold;
• establishing a distance between said mold and said substrate to facilitate filling a volume, defined between said mold and said substrate, with said conformable material through capillary action between said conformable material and said mold and said substrate to form a contiguous layer of said conformable material having first and second sub-portions, said first sub-portions having a first thickness and said second sub-portions having a second thickness differing from said first thickness, with said first and second thicknesses being greater than zero;
• and
• applying a pulling force on one of said motion stage and said mold to compensate for tensile forces, associated with said capillary action, upon said mold.

A method of patterning a substrate, positioned on a motion stage, with a template, said method comprising:

• forming conformable material on said substrate;
• placing said template in superimposition with said conformable material, with said template including a mold facing said conformable material;
• moving a sub-portion of said conformable material, through capillary action between said conformable material and said mold and said substrate, in a direction away from said substrate to wet a region of said mold and conform to a shape thereof forming a contiguous layer of said conformable material having first and second sub-portions, said first sub-portions having a first thickness and said second sub-portions having a second thickness differing from said first thickness, with said first and second thicknesses being greater than zero;
• applying a pulling force on one of said motion stage and said mold to compensate for tensile forces, associated with said capillary action, upon said mold.

A method of patterning a substrate, positioned on a motion stage, with a template having a mold, said method comprising:

• positioning conformable material between said substrate and said mold;
• filling a volume defined between said mold and said substrate with said conformable material through capillary action between said conformable material and said mold and said substrate;
• and
• applying a pulling force on at least one of said motion stage and said mold to compensate for tensile forces, associated with said capillary action, upon said mold.