Nanoimprint mold fabrication and replication by room-temperature conformal chemical vapor deposition

The authors present a technique for the replication of molds for nanoimprint lithography (NIL) without solvents or etching. A thin hard amorphous silicon film is deposited onto imprinted or self-assembled polymer nanostructures by room-temperature conformal plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. After attachment to another substrate and separation from the polymer original, the thin hard film forms a NIL mold that is the inverse of the polymer original. Using this technology, the authors demonstrate the replication of a 200 nm pitch grating mold and sub- 50-nm features over wafer-scale areas without introducing additional line edge roughness associated with conventional replication methods.