UV nanoimprint materials: Surface energies, residual layers, and imprint quality

UV nanoimprint lithography is attracting more and more interest, because it has the potential of becoming a high-resolution, low-cost patterning technique. The availability of suitable UV curing materials is mandatory for successful imprinting. Within this work, a systematic investigation of commercially available photocuring materials was conducted to provide an overview of the properties of these materials. Their wetting behavior with respect to different substrate surfaces was characterized and their surface tensions were determined from their contact angles against two specifically selected solid surfaces: This method is presented here for the first time. The adhesion properties of the UV curing materials to different substrate surfaces and to the mold were investigated and necessary curing times were estimated. Additionally, the dependence of the residual layer thickness on the viscosity and the initial dispensed volume of UV curing materials was analyzed. It was found that the resist formulation of ...