AMO GmbH, a private research service provider in the field of nanofabrication, and SUSS MicroTec AG, a supplier of equipment and process solutions for microstructuring in the semiconductor industry and related markets, are working on the development of applications for Substrate Conformal Imprint Lithography (SCIL) with UV-curing material.

SUSS MicroTec’s SCIL imprint method for sub-50 nm structures optimizes standard imprinting processes for wafers up to 6 inch area full-field imprinting. High resolution nanoimprinting – limited to small wafer sizes up until now – can be successfully applied to large substrates. Large-area soft stamps with repeatable sub-50 nm printing capability do not cause any stamp deformation or damage as no contact force is applied and soft, flexible material is used. When used with UV-curing materials SCIL is able to combine a high resolution with a high throughput. SCIL can be used with a large variety of well-known materials that are commonly used in UV nanoimprinting processes.

AMO has provided two key components for this development: The master for large-area nanostructures and the UV-curing nanoimprint material AMONIL. The masters, that can be up to 6 inches, are fabricated at AMO by laser interference lithography and plasma etching in Silicon. They have perfect binary periodic patterns between 180 to 2.500 nm. These holographic gratings are characterized by seamless patterns and a low defect density on a large area, due to a special fabrication technology.