A dynamic system to evaluate the UV shrinkage characteristics of UV photopolymers used for nanoimprint

Abstract

Knowledge of shrinkage is important for fabricating a successful replication with high resolution and optimizing the conditions of a UV nanoimprint process. A dynamic system to evaluate the UV shrinkage characteristics of photo-curable resin is proposed to study the shrinkage of the UV photo-curable resin with UV exposure time. This system provides a way to evaluate not only the saturation resin shrinkage induced by UV exposure, but also in-situ dynamic shrinkage with a time resolution of lOOus. It is found that the shrinkage-induced displacement of thin film resin by UV exposure has a linear relation with the thickness of the thin film resin. The shrinkage of PAK-01 resin at 250mJ/cm2 is approximately 8.4% by fitting the displacement data using a linear model. The dynamic shrinkage analysis reveals that the stronger UV intensity gives a lower conversion rate at the same exposure dose. © 2010 CPST.