• 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.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.437-442
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• 2009

This paper describes an improved strategy for controlling the adhesion force using both the antiadhesion and adhesion layers for a successful large-area transfer process. An MPTMS (3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane) monolayer as an adhesion layer for Au/Pd thin films was deposited on Si substrates by vapor self assembly monolayer (VSAM) method. Contact angle, surface energy, film thickness, friction force, and roughness were considered for finding the optimized conditions. The sputtered Au/Pd ($\sim$17 nm) layer on the PDMS stamp without the anti-adhesion layer showed poor transfer results due to the high adhesion between sputtered Au/Pd and PDMS. In order to reduce the adhesion between Au/Pd and PDMS, an anti-adhesion monolayer was coated on the PDMS stamp using FOTS (perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane) after $O_2$ plasma treatment. The transfer process with the anti-adhesion layer gave good transfer results over a large area (20 mm $\times$ 20 mm) without pattern loss or distortion. To investigate the applied pressure effect, the PDMS stamp was sandwiched after 90$^{\circ}$ rotation on the MPTMS-coated patterned Si substrate with 1-${\mu}m$ depth. The sputtered Au/Pd was transferred onto the contact area, making square metal patterns on the top of the patterned Si structures. Applying low pressure helped to remove voids and to make conformal contact; however, high pressure yielded irregular transfer results due to PDMS stamp deformation. One of key parameters to success of this transfer process is the controllability of the adhesion force between the stamp and the target substrate. This technique offers high reliability during the transfer process, which suggests a potential building method for future functional structures.