Fingerprint stamp for evaluation of polymer flow time constants in thermal nanoimprint

In order to develop an easy to handle, low-cost procedure to derive imprint-relevant characteristic polymer data from simple imprint experiments, a fingerprint stamp was designed and tested. It contains line and dot structures of different, well-graded sizes in the micron range, where the gaps in between are chosen as to assure independent intrusion of the single patterns into the polymer layer. By imprint of this stamp into a well-characterised polymer, PS 350k, a feasibility test was performed. A pattern size dependent change of the imprint characteristics was observed during the imprint under high-shear into thin layers. This is taken as a hint that polymer characterisation from such experiments is indeed possible. Such data can be adopted to optimise an imprint process for mixed pattern sizes ranging from the micron down to the nanometre scale.