A dual-curable transfer layer for adhesion enhancement of a multilayer UV-curable nanoimprint resist system

摘要

We invented a dual-curable transfer layer to en-hance adhesion of the UV-curable nanoimprint resist to the substrate. Based on this transfer layer, we developed bilayer resist and trilayer resist UV-curable nanoimprint lithogra-phy processes, which were used for etching and lift-off pro-cesses, respectively. The dual-curable transfer layer com-bined at least two different types of reactive functions based on different polymerization mechanisms. It formed strong chemical bonds with both the underneath material and the nanoimprint resist layer in two curing steps. It helped im-prove the adhesion of the low surface energy resist film to the substrate substantially, and, more importantly, made high-resolution patterning much more reliable. Moreover, low aspect ratio imprinted patterns were amplified into high aspect ratio patterns through the transfer layer via a selective etching process.