Injection compression molding of replica molds for nanoimprint lithography

Abstract

As a breakthrough in the cost and durability of molds for nanoimprint lithography (NIL), replica molds are fabricated by injection compression molding (ICM). ICM is commonly used for optical disks such as DVDs or Blu-ray disks and is also a practical fabrication method for nanostructures. In this paper, I successfully demonstrated the fabrication of cycloolefin polymer replica molds with structures smaller than 60 nm by ICM. Furthermore, ultraviolet (UV)-NIL using these replica molds was demonstrated. UV-cured resist was replicated over an area of 60 mm diameter. The degree of replication by UV-NIL in the first usage of each replica mold had good repeatability. Because ICM is a high-throughput, low-cost process, the replica mold can be disposed of after a certain time for UV-NIL. This method leads to a high-integrity UV-NIL process of patterned media because multiple large-area replica molds can be fabricated simultaneously. © 2014 by the authors.