Polymerization shrinkage stress measurement for a UV-curable resist in nanoimprint lithography

A simple method was developed to obtain the polymerization shrinkage stress exerted on the sidewalls of resist/stamp interface in ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography. This method is based on the measurements of demolding force which is the sum of adhesion and friction forces. The mean polymerization shrinkage stress on the sidewalls can readily be decoupled from overall demolding force by independently measuring the friction coefficient, adhesion force and geometries of stamp structures. The polymerization shrinkage stress on the sidewalls is overall larger than adhesion and increases by adding more cross-linking agent to the resist composition. This indicates that in addition to lowering the adhesion at the resist/stamp interface, development of resists with low degrees of shrinkage during UV curing is critical to reducing demolding force. It was also found that the shrinkage stress depends not only on the resist composition but also the stamp structure. A pillar structured stamp leads to a larger stress than a stamp with gratings with identical depth and width.