Embossing Lithography on Sticky Thermoset Polymer Using Ni Template

Embossing lithography is one of the most promising technologies for mass production of nano-scale structures. To advance the industrialization of embossing lithography, fabrication of low cost, high mechanical strength embossing template is essential. Electroformed Ni template can be used as an embossing template if its poor anti-adhesive property is fixed by proper releasing layer treatment, especially, when it is used with sticky thermoset polymer. In this experiment, quartz master template with 200nm to 2um sized surface protrusions was fabricated and used to emboss the PMMA coated Si wafer. Then the embossed PMMA layer was coated with metal seed layer (Ni) and electroplating of Ni was followed to fabricate Ni template. To apply anti-stiction SAM layer, SiO2 and Si layer was coated on Ni template. With proper anti-stiction treatment of Ni template, sub-micron patterns were successfully transferred to sticky thermoset polymers such as epoxy resin using Ni template without any degradation of anti-adhesive property.