Roller imprinting based on focus infrared heating

In this paper we report the development of a new roller imprinting method which is capable of transferring patterns with line-width down to few hundreds nm from a silicon mold to a substrate based on focused infrared heating. This new technique significantly increases the size of imprinting area as well as the imprinting speed as compared to conventional IR- Laser Assisted Imprinting (IR-LAI) method, and solves the uniformity problem of applied pressure. We utilize a glass cylinder to focus the infrared light source into a line, which can heat up the silicon mold in a localized way. The glass cylinder also produces a line-type pre-loaded force on the mold so that it can closely press against the substrate. After the heating by IR sources, the fast rising temperature in the silicon mold and the PMMA on the silicon substrate can go beyond the glass transition temperature of PMMA. At the same time, the patterns which are on the mold are transferred to the PMMA. After cooling, the residual PMMA layer is etched out which complete this IR imprinting process. The advantages of this method are, using inexpensive IR sources such as lamps, continuously imprinting for large-area with line-width down to sub-micro and even nm- scale. In the mean time, this method opens up many new directions and possibilities for further studies.