• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.225-230
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• 2006

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a novel method of fabricating nanometer scale patterns. It is a simple process with low cost, high throughput and resolution. NIL creates patterns by mechanical deformation of an imprint resist and physical contact process. The imprint resist is typically a monomer or polymer formulation that is cured by heat or UV light during the imprinting process. Stiction between the resist and the stamp is resulted from this physical contact process. Stiction issue is more important in the stamps including narrow pattern size and wide area. Therefore, the antistiction layer coating is very effective to prevent this problem and ensure successful NIL. In this paper, an antistiction layer was deposited and characterized by PECVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) method for metal stamps. Deposition rates of an antistiction layer on Si and Ni substrates were in proportion to deposited time and 3.4 nm/min and 2.5 nm/min, respectively. A 50 nm thick antistiction layer showed 90% relative transmittance at 365 nm wavelength. Contact angle result showed good hydrophobicity over 105 degree. $CF_2$ and $CF_3$ peaks were founded in ATR-FTIR analysis. The thicknesses and the contact angle of a 50 nm thick antistiction film were slightly changed during chemical resistance test using acetone and sulfuric acid. To evaluate the deposited antistiction layer, a 50 nm thick film was coated on a stainless steel stamp made by wet etching process. A PMMA substrate was successfully imprinting without pattern degradations by the stainless steel stamp with an antistiction layer. The test result shows that antistiction layer coating is very effective for NIL.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.86-90
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• 2006

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a novel method to fabricate nanometer scale patterns. It is a simple process with low cost, high throughput and high resolution. NIL process creates patterns by the mechanical deformation of imprint resist and physical contact process. This physical contact process causes the stiction between the resist and the stamp. Stiction becomes a key issue especially in the stamps including narrow pattern size and wide area during NIL process development. The antistiction layer coating using fluorocarbon is very effective to prevent this problem and ensure successful NIL. In this paper, the concept of antistiction coating is explained and different preparation methods for nanoimprinting are briefly discussed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.705-710
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• 2005

NIL (nanoimprint lithography) technique has demonstrated a high potential for wafer size definition of nanometer as well as micrometer size patterns. During the replication process by NIL, the stiction between the stamp and the polymer is one of major problems. This stiction problem is moi·e important in small sized patterns. An antistiction layer prevents this stiction ana insures a clean demolding process. In this paper, we were using a TCP (transfer coupled plasma) equipment and $C_4F_8$ as a precursor to make a Teflon-like antistiction layer. This antistiction layer was deposited on a 6 inch silicon wafer to have nanometer scale thicknesses. The thickness of deposited antistiction layer was measured by ellipsometry. To optimize the process factor such as table height (TH), substrate temperature (ST), working pressure (WP) and plasma power (PP), we were using a design of experimental (DOE) method. The table of full factorial arrays was set by the 4 factors and 2 levels. Using this table, experiments were organized to achieve 2 responses such as deposition rate and non-uniformity. It was investigated that the main effects and interaction effects between parameters. Deposition rate was in proportion to table height, working pressure and plasma power. Non-uniformity was in proportion to substrate temperature and working pressure. Using a response optimization, we were able to get the optimized deposition condition at desired deposition rate and an experimental deposition rate showed similar results.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2007

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a new lithographic method that offers a sub-10nm feature size, high throughput, and low cost. One of the most serious problems of NIL is the stiction between mold and resist. The antistiction layer coating is very effective to prevent this stiction and ensure the successful NIL results. In this paper, an antistiction layer was deposited by VSAM (vapor self assembly monolayer) method on silicon samples with FOTS (perfluoroctyltrichlorosilane) as a precursor for making an antistiction layer. A specially designed LPCVD (low pressure chemical vapor deposition) was used for this experiment. All experiments were achieved after removing the humidity. First, the evaporation test of FOTS was performed for checking the evaporation temperature at low pressure. FOTS was evaporated at 5 Tow and $110^{\circ}C$. In order to evaluate the temperature effect on antistiction layer, chamber temperature was changed from 50 to $170^{\circ}C$ with 0.1ml of FOTS for 1 minute. Good hydrophobicity of all samples was shown at about $110^{\circ}$ of contact angle and under $20^{\circ}$ of hysteresis. The surface energies of all samples calculated by Lewis acid/base theory was shown to be about 15mN/m. The deposited thicknesses of all samples measured by ellipsometry were almost 1nm that was similar value of the calculated molecular length. The surface roughness of all samples was not changed after deposition but the friction force showed relatively high values and deviations deposited at under $110^{\circ}$. Also the white circles were founded in LFM images under $110^{\circ}$. High friction forces were guessed based on this irregular deposition. The optimized VSAM process for FOTS was achieved at $170^{\circ}C$, 5 Torr for 1 hour. The hot embossing process with 4 inch Si mold was successfully achieved after VSAM deposition.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07g
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• pp.3331-3333
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• 1999

A novel antistiction method using photo resist is proposed and verified to improve the yield of polysilicon micromachining process. $7.5{\mu}m-thick$ polysilicon is used as a structural layer. Residual stress and stress gradient originated from polysilicon deposition with LPCVD process is relaxed by doping and thermal treatment. The stress gradient of stress-free polysilicon layer is $-0.755MPa/{\mu}m$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.149-154
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• 2005

Teflon like fluorocarbon thin films have been deposited on silicon and oxide molds as an antistiction layer for the hot embossing process by an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The process was performed at $C_4F_8$ gas flow rate of 2 sccm and 30 W of plasma power as a function of substrate temperature. The thickness of film was measured by a spectroscopic ellipsometry. These films were left in a vacuum oven of 100, 200 and $300^{\circ}C$ for a week. The change of film thickness, contact angle and adhesion and friction force was measured before and after the thermal test. No degradation of film was observed when films were treated at $100^{\circ}C$. The heat treatment of films at 200 and $300^{\circ}C$ caused the reduction of contact angles and film thickness in both silicon and oxide samples. Higher adhesion and friction forces of films were also measured on films treated at higher temperatures than $100^{\circ}C$. No differences on film properties were found when films were deposited on either silicon or oxide. A 100 nm silicon template with 1 to $500\;{\mu}m$ patterns was used for the hot embossing process on $4.5\;{\mu}m$ thick PMMA spun coated silicon wafers. The antistiction layer of 10 nm was deposited on the silicon mold. No stiction or damages were found on PMMA surfaces even after 30 times of hot embossing at $200^{\circ}C$ and 10 kN.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.233-241
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• 2000

This paper presents comparative results of various commonly used anti-stiction methods for polysilicon surface micromachining using identical test structures. Four different types of cantilevers - single cantilevers, cantilevers with dimples, cantilevers with anti-stiction tip, cantilevers with plate - with different widths and lengths were employed as test structures. The detachment length of cantilevers was examined depending on the anti-stiction methods and test structure types. After sacrificial layer was removed, evaporation and sublimation drying methods were used in the drying step when takes place the stiction between structure and substrate. Various final rinsing liquids such as methanol, IPA, and DI water were employed to compare anti-stiction results depending on surface tension and rinsing temperature. For sublimation drying method, methanol was used as an intermediate rinsing liquid. Also, the influence of a stress gradient of the polysilicon was investigated by performing the identical anti-stiction experiments on identical test structures with a stress gradient. In conclusion, sublimation drying method showed superior results to various evaporation drying methods and hence it is considered the best method for releasing polysilicon microstructure in polysilicon surface micromachining.