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US 9,168,679 B2Granted
Programmable soft lithography: solvent-assisted nanoscale embossing
AssigneeNorthwestern University
InventorsTeri W. Odom, Min Hyung Lee, Mark D. Huntington, Wei Zhou
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Abstract
A method of forming a nanoscale pattern on a substrate is provided, wherein the method increases or decreases the spacing of patterns on the substrate relative to a master, while keeping the pattern feature size constant. The method can alternatively reduce the pattern feature size of the substrate relative to a master, while keeping the spacing patterns constant.
Claims15
A method of forming a master mold, the method comprising:
- casting an elastomer against a nanoscale master template surface having a template surface pattern array;
- removing the cast elastomer from the template surface as an elastomer mold;
- wetting the elastomer mold with a suspended polymer;
- contacting the wet elastomer mold with a thermoplastic master mold substrate;
- removing the contacted substrate from the elastomer mold as a suspended polymer patterned master mold having an initially constant pattern feature size and spacing with respect to pattern features of the template surface pattern array and having a tunable pattern density across a range from 50% less than to 100% greater than the initial pattern density;
- and
- manipulating the master mold so as to either increase or decrease the initial pattern density.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.