Fabrication of sub 20-nm wide grooves in a quartz mold by space narrowing dry etching

• Published in: Microelectronic engineering Vol. 110; pp. 432 - 435
• Main Authors: Suzuki, Kenta, Youn, Sung-Won, Wang, Qing, Hiroshima, Hiroshi, Nishioka, Yasushiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.10.2013
• Subjects: CHF3; Deposition; Drying; Etching; Grooves; Lithography; Molds; Nanocomposites; Nanostructure; Quartz; Quartz mold; Resists; Space narrowing dry etching; UV nanoimprint lithography; Space narrowing dry etching; UV nanoimprint lithography; CHF3; Quartz mold
• ISSN: 0167-9317; 1873-5568
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mee.2013.02.106

[Display omitted] •We demonstrated a simple fabrication process of ultra-fine grooves.•Grooves finer than spaces of resist patterns can be obtained in a quartz substrate.•The groove width narrowing is based on sidewall deposition during sputter etching.•18-nm-Wide grooves were obtained from 85-nm-wide spaces of resist patterns. This paper describes a simple fabrication process of fine groove structures for quartz molds used in UV nanoimprint lithography. Grooves that are finer than the “spaces” in line/space resist patterns can be obtained on a quartz substrate with the aid of thin Cr layer and a dry etching process using CHF3. The main cause of the groove width narrowing is deposition of fluorocarbon polymer. By changing etching conditions, a large amount of space narrowing is realized. Grooves with widths of 18nm and 62nm were successfully obtained from 85-nm and 200-nm wide space resist patterns, respectively.