| Summary: | Current optical lithography method still cannot cope with the increasing demands from the
industry especially electronics and biomedical industry. Not just it is low throughput; it is also
difficult to conduct, not to mention the end product of this method is not as accurately as
anticipated. Due to these limitations, lots of other alternatives are being developed and one of it
is nanoimprint lithography (NIL).
NIL is a better alternative to the conventional lithography method as it is simpler, cheaper and
has higher throughput. Roll to plate NIL is one of the many NIL techniques and it will be
focused in this project. The main objectives of this study is to modify the roll to plate NIL
machine which is still under development so that it can be a complete machine capable of both
large area mold making and roll to plate NIL process.
This project can be divided into two parts; modifications of the roll to plate NIL machine and
NIL process. Modifications include installation of heating element, UV curing station, doctor
blade mechanism, seamless mold station, motors and other supporting components. Because the
roll to plate NIL machine is still not fully complete, NIL process was done using plate to plate
NIL machine to test its concept.
Although the machine used is different, the concept of NIL is still the same. First of all, the
designed patterns are directly transferred from master mask film to microscope glass, aided by
UV rays. Then, the patterns are replicated to PDMS mold before being imprinted to silicon
substrate using plate to plate NIL machine. At first, the designed patterns were successfully
imprinted on the silicon substrate but it was less accurate as some patterns cannot be seen. In the
second experiment, the new structures has been successfully imprinted with better results along
with its dimensions.
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