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Zhan Y, Deng L, Dai W, Qiu Y, Sun S, Sun D, Hu B, Guan J. Fabrication of Large-Area Nanostructures Using Cross-Nanoimprint Strategy. NANOMATERIALS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2024; 14:998. [PMID: 38921874 PMCID: PMC11206864 DOI: 10.3390/nano14120998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2024] [Revised: 06/05/2024] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024]
Abstract
Nanostructures with sufficiently large areas are necessary for the development of practical devices. Current efforts to fabricate large-area nanostructures using step-and-repeat nanoimprint lithography, however, result in either wide seams or low efficiency due to ultraviolet light leakage and the overflow of imprint resin. In this study, we propose an efficient method for large-area nanostructure fabrication using step-and-repeat nanoimprint lithography with a composite mold. The composite mold consists of a quartz support layer, a soft polydimethylsiloxane buffer layer, and multiple intermediate polymer stamps arranged in a cross pattern. The distance between the adjacent stamp pattern areas is equal to the width of the pattern area. This design combines the high imprinting precision of hard molds with the uniform large-area imprinting offered by soft molds. In this experiment, we utilized a composite mold consisting of three sub-molds combined with a cross-nanoimprint strategy to create large-area nanostructures measuring 5 mm × 30 mm on a silicon substrate, with the minimum linewidth of the structure being 100 nm. Compared with traditional step-and-flash nanoimprint lithography, the present method enhances manufacturing efficiency and generates large-area patterns with seam errors only at the micron level. This research could help advance micro-nano optics, flexible electronics, optical communication, and biomedicine studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yujie Zhan
- State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; (Y.Z.); (Y.Q.); (S.S.); (D.S.); (B.H.)
| | - Liangui Deng
- School of Information Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
- Suzhou Institute, Wuhan University, Suzhou 215028, China
| | - Wei Dai
- Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-Structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China;
| | - Yongxue Qiu
- State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; (Y.Z.); (Y.Q.); (S.S.); (D.S.); (B.H.)
| | - Shicheng Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; (Y.Z.); (Y.Q.); (S.S.); (D.S.); (B.H.)
| | - Dizhi Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; (Y.Z.); (Y.Q.); (S.S.); (D.S.); (B.H.)
| | - Bowen Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; (Y.Z.); (Y.Q.); (S.S.); (D.S.); (B.H.)
| | - Jianguo Guan
- State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; (Y.Z.); (Y.Q.); (S.S.); (D.S.); (B.H.)
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Kim WY, Seo BW, Lee SH, Lee TG, Kwon S, Chang WS, Nam SH, Fang NX, Kim S, Cho YT. Quasi-seamless stitching for large-area micropatterned surfaces enabled by Fourier spectral analysis of moiré patterns. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2202. [PMID: 37072425 PMCID: PMC10113184 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37828-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 04/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The main challenge in preparing a flexible mold stamp using roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography is to simultaneously increase the imprintable area with a minimized perceptible seam. However, the current methods for stitching multiple small molds to fabricate large-area molds and functional surfaces typically rely on the alignment mark, which inevitably produces a clear alignment mark and stitched seam. In this study, we propose a mark-less alignment by the pattern itself method inspired by moiré technique, which uses the Fourier spectral analysis of moiré patterns formed by superposed identical patterns for alignment. This method is capable of fabricating scalable functional surfaces and imprint molds with quasi-seamless and alignment mark-free patterning. By harnessing the rotational invariance property in the Fourier transform, our approach is confirmed to be a simple and efficient method for extracting the rotational and translational offsets in overlapped periodic or nonperiodic patterns with a minimized stitched region, thereby allowing for the large-area and quasi-seamless fabrication of imprinting molds and functional surfaces, such as liquid-repellent film and micro-optical sheets, that surpass the conventional alignment and stitching limits and potentially expand their application in producing large-area metasurfaces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Woo Young Kim
- Department of Smart Manufacturing Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, South Korea
| | - Bo Wook Seo
- Department of Smart Manufacturing Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, South Korea
| | - Sang Hoon Lee
- Department of Smart Manufacturing Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, South Korea
| | - Tae Gyung Lee
- Department of Smart Manufacturing Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, South Korea
| | - Sin Kwon
- Department of Flexible & Printed Electronics, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Won Seok Chang
- Department of Nano Manufacturing Technology, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, Daejeon, South Korea
- Department of Nanomechatronics, University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Sang-Hoon Nam
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Nicholas X Fang
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Seok Kim
- Department of Smart Manufacturing Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, South Korea.
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, South Korea.
| | - Young Tae Cho
- Department of Smart Manufacturing Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, South Korea.
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, South Korea.
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