Effect of Initial Resist Thickness on Residual Layer Thickness of Nanoimprinted Structures

Published

December 1, 2005

Author(s)

Hae-Jeong Lee, Hyun Wook Ro, Christopher L. Soles, Ronald L. Jones, Eric K. Lin, Wen-Li Wu, Daniel R. Hines

Abstract

Accurate quantification and control of the residual layer thickness is a critical challenge to achieving sub-50 nm patterning with nanoimprint lithography. While characterization to within a few nanometers is essential, there is currently a lack of metrologies that are capability quantifying the residual layer thickness with such precision. Here we illustrate that specular X-ray reflectivity can be used to not only quantify the thickness of the residual layer with sub-nm resolution, but also extract the pattern height, the line-to-space ratio, and perceive relative line width variations as a function of the pattern height all with a nm dimensional accuracy. This is illustrated through a series of imprints where the initial film thickness is varied.

Citation

Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology

Volume

23(6)

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

metrology, nanoimprint lithography, pattern shape, residual layer, thickness, X-ray reflectivity

Citation

Lee, H. , , H. , Soles, C. , Jones, R. , Lin, E. , Wu, W. and Hines, D. (2005), Effect of Initial Resist Thickness on Residual Layer Thickness of Nanoimprinted Structures, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=852524 (Accessed October 29, 2025)