Nanoimprint Lithography in volume manufacturing

Josef MEILER, EV Group

Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) was considered for years as next generation patterning technology for the electronic industry. It has been found that NIL is even better suited for novel applications in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, plasmonics and photonics. The reason is given by the unique capabilities offered by this technique as there exemplary are manufacturing possibilities of a wide range of structure sizes and shapes, including 3D, where complexity the design does not add manufacturing costs. Additionally it saves several process step when the resist is used directly as functional layer which is often the case in photonic and biotechnology applications. Furthermore imprinting a scalable technology which has already proven full area nanopatterning up to panel size substrates.
This paper will review on the different areas and how NIL enables volume manufacturing of low cost, high resolution structures for diverse applications. Building on that overview, NIL capabilities and equipment are introduced and how recent developments allowed overcoming certain challenges to enable more wide spread implementation in volume production.

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