Development of Large-Area Sub-20-nm Half-Pitch Nanoimprint Templates for Nanomanufacturing

纳米压印光刻被公认为最有前途的纳米制造技术之一，适用于广泛的行业。在纳米压印技术中，最关键的瓶颈和挑战之一就是压印模板的制备。没有模板，纳米压印就不能复制任何图案。然而，我们需要的许多纳米压印模板远远超出了今天的纳米刻印能力(要么特征太小，要么区域太大，或者两者兼而有之)。这项研究的目标是开发几种创新的非传统纳米刻蚀方法，当单独或联合使用时，可以制造出以前无法制造的各种纳米压印模板；特别是最需要的模板之一-大面积压印模板：大面积亚20 nm半间距栅格和栅格，在多个学科中具有广泛和重要的应用。拟议的创新方法在三个方面：(I)产生特征尺寸和图案面积远远超出传统纳米刻蚀的纳米压印母模板的新方法(两嵌段共聚物的引导自组装、倍频和多重纳米压印)；(Ii)改进和修复纳米压印模板的创新方法(纳米结构的自我完善和晶面各向异性蚀刻的平滑)；以及(Iii)从母版复制高保真的子模板的创新方法(室温CVD和新型材料的液体铸造)。这项研究将开发一种使能和基础纳米制造技术，在从新材料、数据存储、光通信、半导体IC、显示器到生物技术、太阳能电池、燃料电池等广泛的行业中得到广泛应用；并产生纳米加工领域的新前沿知识。因此，拟议中的研究的成功将有利于美国S在纳米技术方面的竞争力，帮助美国的产业，并可能产生重大的经济影响。该研究将培养纳米制造新技术领域的研究生和本科生。

Nanoimprint lithography is well recognized as one of the most promising enabling nanomanufacturing technologies for a broad range of industries. In nanoimprint, one of the most critical bottleneck and challenge is the fabrication of imprint templates. Without templates, nanoimprint cannot replicate any patterns. Yet many nanoimprint templates that we need are well beyond today's nanopatterning capabilities (either features are too small, or areas too large, or both). The goal of the proposed research is to develop several innovative nontraditional nanopatterning methods, which, when used individually or together, can fabricate various nanoimprint templates that have not been able to be fabricated before; in particular, one of the most needed- large-area imprint templates: large-area sub-20-nm half-pitch gratings and grids, that have broad and significant applications in multiple disciplines. The proposed innovative methods are in three areas: (i) new methods of generating nanoimprint master templates of features size and pattern area far beyond traditional nanopatterning (guided self-assembly of diblock copolymer, frequency doubling, and multiple nanoimprinting), (ii) innovative methods of improving and repairing nanoimprint templates (self-perfection of nanostructure and smoothing by crystalline-plane anisotropic etching), and (iii) innovative methods of high fidelity replication of daughter templates from masters (room-temperature CVD and liquid casting of novel materials). This research will develop an enabling and fundamental nanomanufacturing technology of wide applications in a broad range of industries, from new materials, data storage, optical communication, semiconductor ICs, displays, to biotechnology, solar cells, fuel cells, to name a just a few; and generate new cutting-edge knowledge in nanopatterning. Thus, the success of the proposed research will benefit U.S.'s competitiveness in nanotechnology, aid U.S industry, and will potentially have significant economic impact. The research will train graduate and undergraduate students in the new technology area of nanomanufacturing.