Effects of Process Condition and Material Properties on Replication and Structural Development in Thermal Nano-Imprinting.

To clarify the relationship between material properties and replication properties in thermal nano-imprinting, two different kinds of polycarbonate (PC) sheets were imprinted at various conditions. In the imprinting process, we controlled imprinting temperature, pressure, holding time and other factors. After imprinting we examined surface replication by a confocal laser scanning microscopy and SEM. The height of nano-structure was affected by the imprint conditions. The height was improved at high imprint pressure and high imprint temperature. However the height decreased at the highest imprint pressure. We found that nano-structure was achieved at an optimum imprint condition. Replication property was affected by material modulus especially in lower imprinting temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]