Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – Mechanical shaping or molding to form or reform shaped article – Shaping against forming surface
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-30
2001-10-30
Vargot, Mathieu D. (Department: 1732)
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
Mechanical shaping or molding to form or reform shaped article
Shaping against forming surface
C216S044000, C216S052000, C216S053000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06309580
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to release surfaces, particularly release surfaces with fine features to be replicated, and to lithography which May be used to produce integrated circuits and microdevices. More specifically, the present invention relates to a process of using an improved mold or microreplication surface that creates patterns with ultra fine features in a thin film carried on a surface of a substrate.
2. Background of the Art
In many different areas of technology and commercial utility, it is highly desirable that surface be provided with non-stick functionality. The wide range of utility for this type of technology ranges from antistain treatments for fabrics and surfaces (e.g., countertops, stove tops, and the like), to utensils (e.g., cooking or laboratory utensils and surfaces), release surfaces for imaging technology (e.g., image transfer surfaces, temporary carriers), and mold release surfaces. Antistick functionality has clear lubricating implications where the antistick function can be provided in a substantive or retentive manner onto a substrate.
In the fabrication of semiconductor integrated electrical circuits, integrated optical, magnetic, mechanical circuits and microdevices, and the like, one of the key processing methods is lithography and especially photolithography. Lithography can be used, along with its traditional resist imaging in the formation of printing plates and resist images, to create a pattern in a thin film carried on a substrate so that, in subsequent process steps, the pattern can be replicated in the substrate or in another material which is added onto the substrate. The thin film which accepts a pattern or image during the lithographic process is often referred to as resist. The resist may be either a positive resist or a negative resist, depending on its operation of formation. For example, a positive photoresist becomes more soluble in a solvent where irradiated and a negative resist becomes more insoluble where irradiated. A typical lithographic process for integrated circuit fabrication involves exposing or irradiating a photoresist composition or film with a beam of radiation or particles, including light, energetic particles (which may be electrons), photons, or ions, by either passing a flood beam through a mask or scanning a focused beam. The radiation or particle beam changes the chemical structure of the exposed area of the film, so that when washed or immersed in a developer or washed with a developer, either the exposed area or the unexposed area of the resist will be removed to recreate the patterns or its obverse of the mask or the scanning. The lithography resolution is limited by the wavelength of the particles and the resolution of the beam, the particle scattering in the resist and the substrate, and the properties of the resist.
There is an ongoing need in art of lithography to produce progressively smaller pattern sizes while maintaining cost efficiency in the process. There is a great need to develop low-cost technologies for mass producing sub-50 nm structures since such a technology could have an enormous impact in many areas of engineering and science. Not only will the future of semiconductor integrated circuits be affected, but also the commercialization of many innovative electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical microdevices that are far superior to current devices will rely on the possibility of such technology. Additionally optical materials, including reflective coatings and reflective sheeting (as may be used for security purposes or for signage) can use microreplication techniques according to lithographic technology.
Numerous technologies have been developed to service these needs, but they all suffer serious drawbacks and none of them can mass produce sub-50 nm lithography at a low cost. Electron beam lithography has demonstrated 10 nm lithography resolution. A. N. Broers, J. M. Harper, and W. W. Molzen,
Appl. Phys. Lett
. 33, 392 (1978) and P. B. Fischer and S. Y. Chou,
Appl. Phys. Lett
. 62, 2989 (1993). However, using these technologies for mass production of sub-50 nm structures seems economically impractical due to inherent low throughput in a serial processing tool. X-ray lithography, which can have a high throughput, has demonstrated 50 nm lithography resolution. K. Early, M. L. Schattenburg, and H. I. Smith,
Microelectronic Engineering
11,317 (1990). But X-ray lithography tools are rather expensive and its ability for mass producing sub-50 nm structures is yet to be commercially demonstrated. Lithography based on scanning probes has produced sub-10 nm structures in a very thin layer of materials. However, the practicality of such lithography as a manufacturing tool is hard to judge at this point.
Imprint technology using compressive molding of thermoplastic polymers is a low cost mass manufacturing technology and has been around for several decades. Features with sizes greater than 1 micrometers have been routinely imprinted in plastics. Compact disks which are based on imprinting of polycarbonate are one example of the commercial use of this technology. Other examples are imprinted polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) structures with a feature size on the order to 10 micrometers for making micromechanical parts. M. Harmening, W. Bacher, P. Bley, A. El-Kholi, H. Kalb, B. Kowanz, W. Menz, A. Michel, and J. Mohr,
Proceedings IEEE Micro Electro Mechanical Systems
, 202 (1992). Molded polyester micromechanical parts with feature dimensions of several tens of microns have also been used. H. Li and S. D. Senturia,
Proceedings of
1992 13
th IEEE/CHMT International Electronic Manufacturing Technology Symposium
, 145 (1992). However, no one has recognized the use of imprint technology to provide 25 nm structures with high aspect ratios. Furthermore, the possibility of developing a lithographic method that combines imprint technology and other technologies to replace the conventional lithography used in semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturing has never been raised.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to methods for changing the properties of surfaces by bonding coatings of molecules to surfaces to form non-continuous coatings of molecules bonded thereto. The invention is particularly advantageous for forming mold or microreplication surfaces having coatings of molecules bonded thereto, and to processes of molding and microreplication using these coatings and surfaces. The coatings may be referred to as non-continuous coatings as the coating material does not have to bond cohesively with itself parallel to the surface which is coated, but is bonded, molecule-by-molecule, to the surface, such as grass protrudes, blade-by-blade, from the surface of the ground.
The present invention relates to a method for providing a surface with a treatment that can render the surface more effective in molding or microreplication processes. A molecular moiety having release properties towards other materials (e.g., fluorinated hydrocarbon chains or polysiloxanes) and low chemical reactivity to moldable polymers is bonded to a mold or microreplication surface. The release properties of the molecular moiety having release properties allows for the enhancement of resolution on the molded article since the molded material is released from the minute features of the mold on a molecular level. More common polymeric coated release surfaces can fill the openings or partially fill the openings of the mold. Merely smoother release surfaces expose the surface of the mold to abrasion and to reaction with the molding materials. The description of the coating as non-continuous may be described as follows. A continuous coating normally is one that forms a film on the surface with no direct route from one side of the film to the other side of the film. As there is no true film coating formed in the practice of the present invention, but rather individual molecules tend to be stacked up on the surface, there is no continuous coating, even though there
Regents of the University of Minnesota
Schwegman Lundberg Woessner & Kluth P.A.
Vargot Mathieu D.
LandOfFree
Release surfaces, particularly for use in nanoimprint... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Release surfaces, particularly for use in nanoimprint..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Release surfaces, particularly for use in nanoimprint... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2581331