• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.210-217
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• 2004

In this study, a new process, named as nano replication printing(nRP) process, is developed for printing any figure in the range of several micrometers by using voxel matrix scanning scheme. In this newly developed process, a femto-second laser is scanned on a photosensitive monomer resin in order to induce polymerization of the liquid resin according to a voxel matrix which is transformed from bitmap format file. After the polymerization, a droplet of ethanol is dropt to remove the unnecessary remaining liquid resin and then the polymerized figures with nano-scaled precision are only remaining on the glass plate. By the nRP process, any figure file of bitmap format could be reproduced as nano-scaled precision replication in the range of several micrometers. Also, nano/micro-scaled patterns for an extremely wide range of applications would become a technologically feasible reality. Some of figures with nano-scaled precision were printed in scaled replication as examples to prove the usefulness of this study.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.999-1005
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• 2004

A new stamp fabrication technique for the soft lithography has been developed in the range of several microns by means of a nano-replication printing (nRP) process. In the nRP process, a figure or a pattern can be replicated directly from a two-tone bitmap figure with nano-scale details. A photopolymerizable resin was polymerized by the two-photon absorption which was induced by a femtosecond laser. After the polymerization of master patterns, a gold metal layer (about 30 ㎚ thickness) was deposited on the fabricated master patterns for the purpose of preventing a join between the patterns and the PDMS, then the master patterns were transferred in order to fabricate a stamp by using the PDMS (poly-dimethylsiloxane). In the transferring process, a few of gold particles, which were isolated from the master patterns, remained on the PDMS stamp. A gold selective etchant, the potassium iodine (KI) was employed to remove the needless gold particles without any damage to the PDMS stamp. Through this work, the effectiveness of the nRP process with the PDMS molding was evaluated to make the PDMS stamp with the resolution of around 200 ㎚.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.175-182
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• 2005

A laser beam expanding technique is employed to fabricate precise nano-patterns in a nano-replication printing (nRP) process. In the nRP process, some patterns can be fabricated in the range of several microns inside on a polymerizable resin by using a volume-pixel (voxel) matrix that is transformed from a two-tone bitmap figure file. The liquid monomers are polymerized by means of a two-photon-absorption (TPA) phenomenon that is induced by a femtosecond (fs)-pulse laser. The yokels are generated consecutively to merge into adjoining yokels in the process of fabricating a pattern. The resolution of a fabricated pattern can be obtained under the diffraction limit of a laser beam by the two-photon absorbed polymerization (TPP). In this work, a beam-expanding technique has been applied to enlarge a working area and to fabricate precise patterns. Through this work, a working area is expanded by the technique as much as 2.5 times compared with a case of without a beam expanding technique, and precision of outside patterns is improved.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.160-166
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• 2004

In this study, a new algorithm, named as Contour Offset Algorithm(COA) is developed to fabricate precise features or patterns in the range of several micrometers by nano replication printing(nRP) process. In the nRP process, a femto-second laser is scanned on a photosensitive monomer resin in order to induce polymerization of the liquid monomer according to a voxel matrix which is transformed from the bitmap format file. After polymerization, a droplet of ethanol is dropped to remove the unnecessary remaining liquid resin and then only the polymerized figures with nano-scaled precision are remaining on the glass plate. To obtain more precise replicated features, the contour lines in voxel matrix should be modified considering a voxel size. In this study, the efficiency of the proposed method is shown through two examples in view of accuracy.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.153-159
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• 2004

In this study, a new process to pattern directly on a thin metal layer using improved nano replication printing (nRP) process is suggested to evaluate the possibilities of fabricating a stamp for nano-imprinting. In the nRP process, any figure can be replicated from a bitmap figure file in the range of several micrometers with nano-scaled details. In the process, liquid-state resins are polymerized by two-photon absorption which is induced by femto-second laser. A thin gold layer was sputtered on a glass plate and then, designed patterns or figures were developed on the gold layer by newly developed top-down building approach. Generally, stamps fur nano-imprinting have been fabricated by using the costly electron-beam lithography process combined with a reactive ion-etching process. Through this study, the effectiveness of the improved nRP process is evaluated to make a stamp with the resolution of around 200nm with reduced cost.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.305-313
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• 2004

A vacuum pressure-difference technique for making a nano-precision replica is investigated for various applications. Master patterns for replication were fabricated using a nano-replication printing (nRP) process. In the nRP process, any picture and pattern can be replicated from a bitmap figure file in the range of several micrometers with resolution of 200nm. A liquid-state monomer is solidified by two-photon absorption (TPA) induced by a femto-second laser according to a voxel matrix scanning. After polymerization, the remaining monomers were removed simply by using ethanol droplets. And then, a gold metal layer of about 30nm thickness was deposited on the fabricated master patterns prior to polydimethylsiloxane molding for preventing bonding between the master and the polydimethylsiloxane mold. A few gold particles attached on the polydimethylsiloxane stamp during detaching process were removed by a gold selecting etchant. After fabricating the polydimethylsiloxane mold, a nano-precision polydimethylsiloxane replica was reproduced. More precise replica was produced by the vacuum pressure-difference technique that is proposed in this paper. Through this study, direct patterning on a glass plate, replicating a polydimethylsiloxane mold, and reproducing polydimethylsiloxane replica are demonstrated with a vacuum pressure-difference technique for various micro/nano-applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.41-41
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.262-268
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• 2021

For the past several decades, various next-generation patterning methods have been developed to obtain well-designed nano-to-micro structures, such as imprint lithography, nanotransfer printing (nTP), directed self-assembly (DSA), E-beam lithography, and so on. Especially, nTP process has much attention due to its low processing cost, short processing time, and good compatibility with other patterning techniques in achieving the formation of high-resolution functional patterns. To transfer functional patterns onto desirable substrates, the use of soft materials is required for precise replication of master mold. Here, we introduce a simple and practical nTP method to create highly ordered structures using various polymeric replica materials. We found that polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), and polyvinylpyridine (PVP) are possible candidates for replica materials for reliable duplication of Si master mold based on systematic analysis of pattern visualization. Furthermore, we successfully obtained well-defined metal and oxide nanostructures with functionality on target substrates by using replica patterns, through deposition and transfer process. We expect that the several candidates of replica materials can be exploited for effective nanofabrication of complex electronic devices.