Degradation of Perfluorotrichlorosilane Antisticking Layers: The Impact on Mold Cleaning, Ultraviolet-Nanoimprinting, and Bonded Ultraviolet-Nanoimprint Molds

作者:Kirchner Robert*; Teng Lichao; Lu Bo; Adolphi Barbara; Fischer Wolf Joachim
来源:Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 2011, 50(6): 06GK13.
DOI:10.1143/JJAP.50.06GK13

摘要

A reduction of the adhesion between imprint resist and mold is crucial for defect free imprints and is commonly achieved by silane based antisticking layers. Highly stable antisticking layers are required for high throughputs and long imprint mold lifetimes. Hybrid nanoimprint molds avoid the imprint inherent residual polymer layer in UV-assisted nanoimprinting. Such hybrid molds have chemically heterogeneous surfaces of silica and, e. g., chromium oxide regions. The chemical stability of vapor-coated 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane antisticking layers against acetone, acidic piranha, reactive ion etching and UV-assisted nanoimprinting was investigated. To evaluate the behavior of hybrid mold surfaces, flat silica and antireflective chromium-oxynitride surfaces were used. The antisticking layer on both surfaces was highly chemical resistant against acetone. A continuous antisticking layer degradation with a surface free energy increase of 0.9mN/m per 10 min piranha treatment and 1.2mN/m per 10 subsequent UV-assisted imprints was found for silica surfaces. On the chromium surfaces, the antisticking layer quality was much lower than on fused silica and degraded much faster. The surface free energy of silane coated chromium surfaces was increased by 2.3mN/m after 10 imprints and the antisticking layer was completely degraded after a single 10 min piranha cleaning step. The lower antisticking layer quality on antireflective chromium was attributed to the surface itself. Additionally, the high chemical resistance of the vapor coated silane was used to successfully protect the adhesive joints of cost-efficient, adhesively bonded nanoimprint molds from being degraded by acidic piranha during mold cleaning. This can significantly increase the life-time of such bonded molds.

  • 出版日期2011-6