Ultrasonic nanoimprint onengineering plastics atroomtemperature
Harutaka Mekaru · 2006
2.EXPERIMENTS Figure l(a) showsloading stages oftheultrasonic NILsystem withabuilt-in magnetostriction actuator AU-01ON300-MSI (ETREMAProduct, Inc.). Butthis actuator generated heatduring oscillation andtherefore, foritscooling, itwasinstalled withwater-cooled block connected toa chiller system. Anelectroformed-Ni moldwasbonded toanaluminum block with anegative-tone UV resist (PAK-01, ToyoGosei Co., Ltd.) through atrapezoid quartz plinth asshowninfig. l(b). Figure 2(a) shows amicrophotograph ofthemoldpattern. Theelectroformed-Ni moldwasused asa standard moldofa15mm square cell bySCIVAXCo., Ltd. Moldpatterns in1-3and6-8rowsare ofaconcave typewith1umindepth, andthepatterns intherows4and5rowsareofaconvex type with1uminheight. There areeight pattern sizes ranging from0.5to10um.Byusing this moldthe ultrasonic nanoimprint wastried withfivekinds ofengineering plastics, namely polythylene terephthalate (Tg: 75degree C),polymethyl methacrylate (Tg: 105degree C),polycarbonate (Tg: 150 degree C),cyclo olefin polymer (Tg: >150degree C),andpolyimide (Tg: >400degree C).A microphotograph ofeachimprinted pattern isshowninfig. 2(b) -(f). Onthesurface ofthe polyimide sheet infig. 2(f), originally there seemed tobenumerous rolling marks. Inallthe engineering plastics, theimprinted pattern oftheconvex-type canbeobserved inrows1-3and6-8. Themolding conditions were:molding temperature = 25degree C (room temperature), loading force = 100N,holding time=10s,frequency =10kHz,amplitude = 3um,andthepress speed =10 um/s. Fivekinds ofengineering plastics wereimprinted under identical molding conditions. When anultrasonic vibration wasnotimpressed, imprinted-pattern inallengineering plastics wasfound to beincomplete. Anykindofrelease agent wasnotspread onthemold. 3.SUMMARY We developed anultrasonic NILtechnology asathird typeofnanoimprint method that was neither thermal-NIL norwasitUV-NIL. Byusing this technique wesucceeded inroom-temperature nanoimprinting offive kinds ofengineering plastics atamolding time ofonly tenseconds.