Study on residual resist layer thickness measurement for Nanoimprint Lithography based on near-field optics

摘要

To realise Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) as a highly reliable lithography technique for the next-generation semiconductor fabrication process, it is seriously necessary to measure the thickness of the residual resin layer of several 10 nm remaining between the imprinted patterns and the substrate. In this paper, we propose a novel optical measurement method for the Residual Layer Thickness (RLT) of NIL based on near-field optics, the lateral resolution of which does not depend on the diffraction limit owing to the wavelength. These theoretical and experimental analyses suggest that the proposed method is effective for evaluating the thickness of residual layer of NIL.