PH

Subprojects

Nanoimprint Lithography Coordinator: Clivia Sotomayor Torres (NMRC, Ireland)	More Details

Soft Lithography and Self-Assembly Coordinator: Bruno Michel (IBM, Switzerland)	More Details

MEMS-based Nanopatterning (this includes nano-stencil and dip-pen) Coordinator: Juergen Brugger (EPFL, Switzerland)	More Details

Materials Coordinator: Gabi Grützner (Micro Resist Technology GmbH, Germany)	More Details

Tools Coordinator: Jörg Kühnholz (SUSS, Germany)	More Details

Simulation Coordinator: Jim Greer (NMRC, Ireland)	More Details

Training and Dissemination Coordinator: Christophe Vieu (LAAS/CNRS, France)

Nanoimprint Lithography

Nanoimprint lithography is a polymer embossing process requiring a mold, polymer and temperature-pressure cycle. This parallel process can yield feature sizes in the 10 nm range. It is the purpose of this subproject to address the roadblock facing nanoimprint lithography to facilitate take up by industry for a range of nanotechnology related application, reducing costs and increasing functionality of nanostructured materials and devices.

The key-objective of this subproject is to establish a library of processes for specific applications thereby pushing the design rules limits to combine sub 10 nm with 10 µm features.

Soft Lithography and Self-Assembly

Soft lithography will be developed to industrial maturity as an ultra low cost large area patterning process. Self-assembly methods will be optimised to improve yield and specificity to render them viable for future manufacturing processes and will be combined with nanopatterning to create novel structures with a much higher degree of control than previously possible.

MEMS Based Nanopatterning

This subproject combines two MEMS based nanopatterning methods: Nanoscale dispensing of liquids through apertured cantilever probes, and Stencil, a vacuum deposition method of vaporized material through small apertures. Both techniques are part of the same subproject in order to exploit the existing synergies, i.e. common technological developments to carry out especially in the field of MEMS and nanofabrication.

Materials

This subproject will design and supply tailored multifunctional materials to fulfil the needs of new patterning methods. Issues like rheology in the nanometer scale will be addressed by experimental investigations. Topics such as molecular weight distribution, persistence length of the polymer, nanoscale stress relaxation and viscoelasticity, macromolecular chain orientation during flow etc., will be tackled. The main emphasis in the beginning of the project will be on materials dedicated for Nanoimprinting. When the technologies of other Sub-areas become maturer, material development for these areas will be emphasised.

Tools

The equipment used in the field of emerging nanopatterning methods today are typically originally designed for other purposes: These include mask aligners which could be used for embossing, substrate bonding aligners used for stencil techniques and flip-chip bonders used for step and flash/print techniques. Therefore it is easy to perceive the current limitations of the techniques available.

The challenges in this subproject are to develop dedicated equipment for Nanoimprint Lithography, Soft Lithography and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) with high accuracy alignment, full embossing force control and high process flexibility including recipe editing. These new machines will be partly derived from existing equipment exploiting the technical experience and know-how in the Consortium.

Simulation

Within this integration theme, modeling support for the fabrication activities will be developed and applied. Activities include computational materials science and mesoscale simulation to understand the formation of the fabricated structures, and MEMs scale modelling for optimisation of the fabrication tools.

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