Repair of step and flash imprint lithography templates

In order for step and flash imprint lithography (S-FIL) to become a truly viable manufacturing technology, infrastructure including template repair must be commercially available. Extensive template repair studies were undertaken using RAVE’s nm 650 tool which is predicated on an AFM platform and relies upon a nanomachining technique for opaque defect removal. On S-FIL templates, the standard deviation for depth repairs in quartz from the target depth was found to be 3.1nm (1σ). At 21.5nm (1σ), the analogous spread in edge placement data for opaque line protrusions was somewhat higher. Trench cuts through lines were successfully created with a minimum size of about 55nm. The effectiveness of the repairs on the template was verified by imprinting experiments. The range of depth offsets studied (−15to+15nm) had no bearing on the imprinting process. The edge placement on wafers virtually mirrored the edge placement of the repaired templates. Connections between features which were created by trench cuts on t...