Lithography by molding/material transferring I:

soft lithography (pattern duplication)

• A master mold is made by lithographic techniques and a stamp is cast from this master.
• Poly di-methyl siloxane (PDMS) is most popular material for stamps.
• Image reversal: fill PDMS stamp with PDMS pre-polymer, then peeled from PDMS stamp.
Stamp (mold) production
PDMS properties:
• Soft and flexible.
• Can be cured to create a robust PDMS stamp.
• Chemically inert, non-hygroscopic, good
thermal stability.
• Can be bonded to a glass slide to create
micro-fluidic components.
(hygroscopic: readily taking up and retaining moisture)

PDMS stamp (mold) after

peel off from SU-8 master
Photolithography pattern SU-8 Cast PDMS pre-polymer and cure
 Soft-lithography I: micro-contact printing (μCP)
Chemical patterning.
The chemical can be used as
etching mask, or for bio-
molecule attachment.
The “ink” itself can also be
bio-molecules.

Roller CP

• Minimum resolution affected by diffusion of molecules, can reach sub-50nm.

• PDMS is deformable – can accommodate rough surfaces or spherical substrates.
• Self assembled mono-layers (SAM) are efficient barriers against chemical etches.
• For example, SAM monolayer can be used as etching mask to pattern Au using wet-
etch.
 Soft lithography II: replication molding (REM)
• Replication molding transfers features from master to
replica by curing a liquid.
• Uses UV or thermally curable pre-polymers that contain no
solvent.
• Pre-polymer poured on top of master mold and cured.
• The resulting polymer can be peeled off. REM >50nm
• It can be repeated to generate 3-D features in a single step.
Master

Mold pre-
polymer

Master

Cure, peel off

Mold for REM, typically PDMS, SU-8 or Si

Soft lithography III: micro-molding in capillaries (MIMIC)
• PDMS mold is placed directly on top of the substrate and
pre-polymer is placed at the open ends of the channel.
• Due to the capillary effect, the pre-polymer completely fills
in the channels of the stamp.
• Pre-polymer: must have low viscosity and strong
interactions with the PDMS mold; this ensures proper
filling of channels.
• After the pre-polymer has filled the channels of the PDMS
mold, it is cured.
• Can be used with UV- curable prepolymers, inorganic salts,
colloidal particles, and other materials

Liquid
pre-
polymer
Lithography by molding/material transferring II:
nanoimprint lithography (NIL)

Mold

Resist
Substrate
Lithography by molding/material transferring II:
nanoimprint lithography (NIL)

Mold
Resist
Substrate
Substrate
Lithography by molding/material transferring II:
nanoimprint lithography (NIL)

Mold

Resist
Substrate
Substrate
 Nanoimprint Lithography

High resolution
-not limited by wavelength

High throughput
-parallel process

Low cost
 Nanoimprint Lithography (thermal/hot embossing)

mold

Heat-up polymer
resist and press down

Cool-down and
remove mold

Pattern transfer
to substrate

Mold = mask = template = stamp

UV-curable Nanoimprint lithography
• Liquid resist, soft and deformable by mold.
Normally lower viscosity than thermal resist.
• Hardened by UV-curing (polymerization).
• Molds or substrate must be transparent
(PDMS, Quartz).
• No temperature (thermal cycle) necessary.
• Thus a very gentle process, and thermal
expansion mismatch no longer an issue.
• Many UV-curable resists are sensitive to
oxygen – exposure under inert conditions.
 Scanning probe lithography (SPL)
• Mechanical patterning: scratching, nano-indentation
• Chemical and molecular patterning (dip-pen nanolithography, DPN)
• Voltage bias application
o Field enhanced oxidation (of silicon or metals)
o Electron exposure of resist materials
• Manipulation of atoms/molecules by STM, or nanostructures by AFM

AFM: atomic force microscopy (X-Y positioning by piezo; Z deflection by optical

measurement)
 AFM lithography – scratching
(simplest, mechanical lithography)
• Material is removed from the substrate leaving deep trenches with the
characteristic shape of the tip used.
• The advantages of nano-scratching for lithography
o Precision of alignment, see using AFM imaging, then pattern wherever
wanted.
o The absence of additional processing steps, such as etching the substrate.
• But it is not a clean process (debris on wafer), and the AFM tip cannot last long.
Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN)

• Similar to micro-contact printing,

and writing using a fountain pen.
• AFM tip is “inked” with material to
be deposited
• Material is adsorbed on target
• <15nm features
• Multiple DPN tip arrays for higher
throughput production
 AFM lithography: oxidation (local electrochemical anodization)

• Resulting oxide affected by experimental

parameters
o Voltage (typically from 5-10V)
o Tip scan speed (stationary to tens of µm/s)
o Humidity (20% to 80%)
• Detected current can be used for process control
• Changes in translational velocity influence current
flow
STM lithography (STM: scanning tunneling microscopy)
By applying a voltage between tip and substrate it is possible to deposit or
remove atoms or molecules.
Van der Waals force used to drag atoms/molecules.

Advantages of STM Lithography

• Information storage devices (one atom per bit, highest storage density).
• Nanometer patterning technique (highest resolution, ~Å).
• Manipulations of big molecules and individual atoms.

Iron on copper (111)

 Scanning probe lithography (STM)

Xenon on Nickel (110)

Iron on copper (111)

STM manipulation of atoms/molecules

71
M.F. Crommie, C.P. Lutz, D.M. Eigler. Science 262, 218-220 (1993)
 Pattern transfer (next step after lithography)

Direct etch Liftoff Electroplating…

• Lithography create patterns generally in a resist (polymer) layer.

• For device application, pattern needs to be transferred to another layer (metal,
semiconductors…).
 Pattern transfer by liftoff
Problems

Tailoring of the resist profile: undercut

desirable
Directional deposition : evaporation is
preferred
Bi-layer resist for undercut: Non-directive deposition in sputtering
Two layers with different
sensitivity Shadowing
– PMMA 15K/PMMA 950K
– MMA Copolymer / PMMA
– PMMA/PMGI (liftoff layer)

Under-cut profile for easy liftoff Directive deposition with evaporation

PMGI: http://www.microchem.com/products/pmgi.htm
Controlled shadow evaporation (large undercut for liftoff)

a
ZEP is an EBL resist
PMGI is an EBL resist AND liftoff layer
c

b d
Controlled shadow evaporation (for tunnel junction)

Circuit of SQUIDs and

Josephson Tunnel
Junctions
(Al/Al2O3/Al), tunnel
barrier is Al2O3
 Controlled shadow evaporation (for spin-valve)

• Useful for lateral devices (tunnel junctions, superconductor

circuitry…)
• Lateral overlap determined by resist thickness and angle
• In-situ interface

Ex : lateral spin-valve
T. Kimura et al.,
PRL 100, 66602 (2008) Py = permalloy, NiFe alloy
To read: Chapter 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.5

Homework:
1. The 1st question from the class.
2. The 2nd question from the class (optional).
3. You want to expose grating with 3 m pitch using an i-line (365 nm wavelength)
contact mask aligner. Please estimate what is the upper limit of your photoresist
thickness?
4. You coated your Si wafer with a photoresist slightly thinner than the thickness you
calculated in question 3. However, you still can’t successfully expose the grating
that you want. Can you guess what is wrong? How to solve it?
5. Chapter 7 question #5

Due next Monday (9/15/2025)