Quantitative characterizations of a nanopatterned bonded wafer: force determination for nanoimprint lithography stamp removal

The nanoimprint lithography process consists of two mechanical steps: molding and stamp removal. While many publications dealing with anti-sticking layer properties or the understanding of polymer flow during imprinting have recently been published, only a few studies have been carried out to deeply characterize the demolding step. Regarding the small amount of theoretical work dedicated to this issue, in this paper both experimental and first theoretical approaches are proposed to characterize the demolding process in a peeling scheme. Full 200?mm stamp and imprinted wafers were used to identify the experimental limitation of such a full wafer peeling demolding scheme. A rectangular stamp and substrate samples with or without nanoscale features combined with an augmented beam theory are proposed to extract quantitative data for the required demolding force as well as the friction stress along the feature sidewall. Therefore both adhesion and friction forces were characterized on single stamp structures.