Characterisation of ultraviolet nanoimprint dedicated resists

We have developed a new resist material, named NILTM105, for the purpose of ultraviolet curing nanoimprint lithography. Its capability for micro- and nano-scale features patterning has been experimentally analyzed and compared to two other commercially available UV-NIL resists (AMONIL-MMS4 proposed by AMO GmbH, Germany and PAK-01 from Toyo Gosei, Japan). Using 3D-atomic force microscopy, cross section scanning electron microscopy, CD-SEM and ellipsometric measurements, the suitability of this resist for a reliable replication of the mold features was confirmed. Besides, detailed study of the residual thickness and features height variation as a function of pattern size and density has proven that the three investigated resists can flow over distances on the millimeter range. Finally, the etch resistance of the home-developed material was characterized under several plasmas conditions. It was found out that the etch rates values are compatible with the use of this resist as a masking layer during transfer steps.