The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an imprint mould, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing a micro-nano imprint mould and an imprinting process by applying the micro-nano imprint mould.
A photolithography technique plays a very important role in a semiconductor process. Currently, as electronic devices are tending to miniaturize, the exposure wavelength used in the photolithography process is decreased gradually. However, due to the limit of light characteristic, process apparatuses and techniques of the photolithography process are more complex and more precise to achieve the transformation of micro-nano patterns. Therefore, the photolithography process has drawbacks of expensive apparatus cost and high technique risk. Furthermore, the photolithography will soon face the bottleneck of optical imaging technique.
A micro-nano imprinting technique is a new micro-nano process technique, which can be used to fabricate a pattern with a size of 10 nm or smaller. In a typical imprinting process, a polymer is heated, or a polymer or an inorganic matter is blended to form a solution to be an imprint fluid, the imprint fluid is then filled into a pattern structure on a surface of a mould, and the imprint fluid on the mould is transferred onto a substrate to transfer the pattern of the mould onto the substrate.
However, when the imprint fluid is filled into the mould by a spin-coating method, a solvent-assisting imprinting method or a hot embossing method, the imprint fluid remains on a convex of the pattern structure on the surface of the mould, so that the imprint fluid on the convex and the imprint fluid filled into a concave of the pattern structure of the mould of the mould form a continuous film. With such a continuous film, the desired pattern size cannot be accurately transferred, and the property difference between the pattern and the underlying substrate cannot be discriminated. For example, when a conductive pattern is transferred, the transferred pattern is continuous due to the existence of the continuous film, so that the conductive region and the insulation region cannot be discriminated. In addition, when the imprinting material is transferred onto the substrate, a portion of the continuous film has to be removed to remove the residual portion outside the desired pattern structure. When the pattern does not have a uniform thickness, a portion of the thinner area of the pattern is thinned during the process of removing the residual layer, so that the accuracy of the transferred pattern is seriously affected.
Therefore, one aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a micro-nano imprint mould, which uses a surface treatment method to cause a difference between surface properties of convexes and concaves of the mould, so that an imprint fluid can selectively only enter the concaves of the mould but cannot stay on the convexes of the mould. Therefore, an objective of no residual layer can be achieved in the imprinting process, so that it can prevent the imprint fluid from becoming a continuous film after baking, save the problem of removing the residual layer and simplify the process.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide an imprint process, which can greatly enhance the accuracy of the transferred pattern and effectively increase the yield of the imprinting process.
According to the aforementioned aspects, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a micro-nano imprint mould including the following steps. A mould body including a first surface and a second surface on opposite sides is provided, wherein the mould body includes an imprinting pattern structure set in the first surface, and the imprinting pattern structure includes a plurality of concaves and a plurality of convexes between the concaves. A surface treatment step is performed on the first surface of the mould body to make a first contact angle form between an imprint fluid and the concaves and a second contact angle form between the imprint fluid and the convexes, wherein the first contact angle is different from the second contact angle.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a material of the mould body is silicon, the surface treatment step includes forming a silane film on the convexes, and the imprint fluid is an epoxy solution, wherein the second contact angle is 100 degrees, and the first contact angle is 60 degrees.
According to the aforementioned aspects, the present invention provides an imprinting process including the following steps. An imprint mould is provided, wherein the step of providing the imprint mould includes the following steps. A mould body including a first surface and a second surface on opposite sides is provided, wherein the mould body includes an imprinting pattern structure set in the first surface, and the imprinting pattern structure includes a plurality of concaves and a plurality of convexes between the concaves. A surface treatment step on the first surface of the mould body is performed to make a first contact angle form between an imprint fluid and the concaves and a second contact angle form between the imprint fluid and the convexes, wherein the first contact angle is different from the second contact angle. The imprint fluid is selectively only filled into the concaves by using a difference between the first contact angle and the second contact angle. When the imprint mould is provided, a substrate is provided. The imprint fluid in the concaves is transferred onto a surface of the substrate.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the step of providing the substrate further includes performing a surface treatment on the substrate to make the surface of the substrate have a special functional group. In one preferred embodiment, the surface treatment is a plasma treatment, an arc discharge treatment, a corona treatment, a heating treatment, an acidification treatment, an oxidization treatment or a sulfonation treatment.
The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention are more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present invention discloses method for manufacturing a micro-nano imprint mould and an imprinting process. In order to make the illustration of the present invention more explicit, the following description is stated with reference to
Refer to
Next, a surface treatment step is performed on the surface 102 of the mould body 100 including the pattern structure 110 set thereon, so as to enable a contact angle to form between the concaves 108 of the pattern structure 110 and an imprint fluid desired to be imprinted subsequently, and to enable another contact angle to form between the convexes 106 of the pattern structure 110 and the imprint fluid. The contact angles between the imprint fluid and the concaves 108 and between the imprint fluid and the convexes 106 must be different, and the difference between the two contact angles between the imprint fluid and the concaves 108 and between the imprint fluid and the convexes 106 is preferably greater than or equal to 5 degrees. The contact angles between the imprint fluid and the concaves 108 and between the imprint fluid and the convexes 106 are different, so the imprint fluid can selectively enter the concaves 108 of the mould body 100 but cannot be adhered to the convexes 106 of the mould body 100.
In one embodiment, in the surface treatment step, a surface modified film may be formed only on the convexes 106 of the pattern structure 110, wherein the surface modified film may be an inorganic film, an organic film, or a mixture film composed of an organic material and an inorganic material. In another embodiment, in the surface treatment step, a surface modified film may be formed only on the concaves 108 of the pattern structure 110, wherein the surface modified film may be an inorganic film, an organic film, or a mixture film composed of an organic material and an inorganic material. In still another embodiment, in the surface treatment step, different surface modified films may be respectively formed on the convexes 106 and the concave 108 of the pattern structure 110, wherein the different surface modified films may be, for example, different silane films.
As shown in
Refer to
Next, a surface treatment step is performed on the surface 202 of the mould body 200, so as to enable a contact angle to form between the concaves 208 of the pattern structure 210 and an imprint fluid desired to be imprinted subsequently, and to enable another contact angle to form between the convexes 206 of the pattern structure 210 and the imprint fluid. The contact angles between the imprint fluid and the concaves 208 and between the imprint fluid and the convexes 206 must be different, and the difference between the two contact angles between the imprint fluid and the concaves 208 and between the imprint fluid and the convexes 206 is preferably greater than or equal to 5 degrees.
As shown in
After the micro-nano imprint mould is formed, the micro-nano imprint mould can be used to perform an imprinting process.
Next, a substrate 118 to be imprinted is provided, wherein a material of the substrate 118 may be an inorganic material, an organic material, or a mixture of an inorganic material and an organic material. In one embodiment, a surface treatment procedure is performed on a surface 120 of the substrate 118 to make the surface 120 of the substrate 118 have a special functional group, so as to modify the surface property of the surface 120 of the substrate 118. The special functional group may be a hydroxyl group (—OH), a carboxyl group (—COOH), an amine group (—NH2), an amide group (—H—N—C═O), or a mixture of the aforementioned groups. A plasma treatment method, an arc discharge method, a corona treatment method, a heating treatment method, an acidification treatment method, an oxidization treatment method or a sulfonation treatment method may be used to perform the surface treatment of the substrate 118.
Then, the imprint fluid 116 in the concaves 108 of the micro-nano imprint mould 114 is transferred onto the surface 120 of the substrate 118, and the micro-nano imprint mould 114 is removed to successfully transfer the pattern of the micro-nano imprint mould 114 onto the substrate 118 to complete the imprinting process, such as shown in
Then, a substrate 220 to be imprinted is provided, wherein a material of the substrate 220 may be an inorganic material, an organic material, or a mixture of an inorganic material and an organic material. Similarly, a surface treatment procedure is performed on a surface 222 of the substrate 220 to make the surface 222 of the substrate 220 have a special functional group, so as to modify the surface property of the surface 222 of the substrate 220. Subsequently, the imprint fluid 218 in the concaves 208 of the micro-nano imprint mould 216 is transferred onto the surface 222 of the substrate 220, and the micro-nano imprint mould 216 is removed to successfully transfer the pattern of the micro-nano imprint mould 216 onto the substrate 220 to complete the imprinting process, such as shown in
According to the aforementioned embodiments, one advantage of the present invention is that a method for manufacturing a micro-nano imprint mould of the present invention uses a surface treatment method to cause a difference between surface properties of convexes and concaves of the mould, so that an imprint fluid can selectively only enter the concaves of the mould but cannot be adhered to the convexes of the mould. Therefore, an objective of no residual layer can be achieved in the imprinting process, so that it can prevent the imprint fluid from becoming a continuous film after baking, save the problem of removing the residual layer and simplify the process.
According to the aforementioned embodiments, another advantage of the present invention is that an imprint process of the present invention does not have a residual layer problem. Accordingly, the accuracy of the transferred pattern can be greatly enhanced, and the yield of the imprinting process can be effectively increased.
As is understood by a person skilled in the art, the foregoing preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrative of the present invention rather than limiting of the present invention. It is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, the scope of which should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structure.