Method of providing desirable wetting and release characteristics between a mold and a polymerizable composition
View Patent ↗The present invention provides a method that features improved wetting characteristics while allowing preferential adhesion and release characteristics with respect to a substrate and a mold having imprinting material disposed therebetween. The method includes coating a surface of the mold with a volume of surfactant containing solution. The surfactant in the solution includes a hydrophobic component consisting essentially of a plurality of fluorine-containing molecules. The distribution of the plurality of the fluorine atoms in the fluorine-containing molecules, as well as the fluorine-containing molecules throughout the volume provides a desired contact angle with respect to a polymerizable composition disposed on the substrate. The contact angle is in a range of 50° or less.
1. A method of providing desirable wetting and release characteristics between a mold, having a surface, and a polymerizable composition, the method comprising:
coating the surface of the mold with a volume of surfactant-containing solution, with the surfactant including a fluorinated hydrophobic component providing a contact angle with a magnitude that is less than about 20° with respect to the polymerizable composition.
2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the surfactant-containing solution and the polymerizable composition are formed from the same constituent components.
3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the surfactant-containing solution the polymerizable composition are formed from differing constituent components.
4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the fluorinated hydrophobic component comprises CF 3 and CF 2 groups.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising forming, adjacent to the surface of the mold, a layer of the polymerizable composition having a surfactant-rich region and a surfactant-depleted region, with the surfactant-rich region having a desired thickness.
6. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein the desired thickness of the surfactant-rich region is approximately 1 nm.
7. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein the surfactant-rich region includes fluorine-containing molecules selected from a set of fluorine-containing molecules consisting essentially of CF 3 and CF 2 groups.
8. A method of providing desirable wetting and release characteristics between a mold, having a surface, and a polymerizable composition, the method comprising:
disposing a layer of a surfactant-containing solution on the surface of the mold;
depositing the polymerizable composition on a substrate; and
contacting the polymerizable composition with the surfactant-containing solution layer on the surface of the mold, defining an interface, with the surfactant-containing solution layer and the polymerizable composition each including a surfactant component, with an aggregate quantity of the surfactant component at the interface being sufficient to generate a lamella layer,
wherein a contact angle of the polymerizable composition on the surface of the mold is less than about 20°.
9. The method as recited in claim 8 wherein a thickness of the lamella layer is approximately 1 nm.
10. The method as recited in claim 8 wherein the fluorine-containing molecules are selected from a set of fluorine-containing molecules consisting essentially of CF 3 and CF 2 groups.
11. A method of imprint lithography, the method comprising:
depositing an imprinting material on a substrate;
varying release properties associated with an imprint template by contacting a solution including imprinting materials and a polymeric fluorinated surfactant with the imprint template, wherein the polymeric fluorinated surfactant comprises a non-ionic acrylic copolymer based fluorochemical surfactant that comprises perfluorobutane sulfonate segments; and
energizing the imprinting materials to cause a solid material to be produced therefrom.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising pre-treating the surface of the imprint template to be hydrophilic.
13. The method of claim 11 further comprising pre-treating the surface of the imprint template by applying a composition that includes the surfactant to the surface of the imprint template.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the composition that includes the surfactant is a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and the surfactant.
15. A method of imprint lithography, the method comprising:
depositing an imprinting material on a substrate;
moving an imprint template towards the substrate so that the imprinting material coats a surface of the imprint template and a surface of the substrate; and
energizing the imprinting material to cause a solid material to be produced therefrom,
wherein the imprinting material includes a surfactant having a composition that includes 87% polymeric fluorochemical actives, 7% non-fluorochemical actives, 5% 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone, and less than 1% toluene.
16. The method of claim 11 wherein the imprinting material includes acryloxymethylpentamethyldisiloxane, isobornyl acrylate, ethylene glycol diacrylate, and 2-hydrozy-2 methyl-1-phenyl-propan-1-one.
17. The method of claim 15 wherein the imprinting material includes acryloxymethylpentamethyldisiloxane, isobornyl acrylate, ethylene glycol diacrylate, and 2-hydrozy-2 methyl-1-phenyl-propan-1-one.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein the surfactant is less than 1% of the imprinting material.
19. The method of claim 17 wherein the surfactant is less than 1% of the imprinting material.
20. The method of claim 15 wherein depositing the imprinting material on the substrate includes depositing a plurality of droplets upon the substrate.
21. The method of claim 15 wherein depositing the imprinting material on the substrate includes spin-coating the imprinting material on the substrate.
22. The method of claim 15 further comprising pre-treating the surface of the imprint template to be hydrophilic.
23. The method of claim 22 wherein pre-treating includes hydrolyzing the surface of the imprint template.
24. The method of claim 23 wherein hydrolyzing includes forming —OH bonds at the surface of the imprint template.
25. A method of imprint lithography, the method comprising:
pre-treating a surface of an imprint template to cause it to be hydrophilic;
pre-treating the surface of the imprint template, without forming an a priori release layer, by applying a composition comprising a non-ionic acrylic copolymer based fluorochemical surfactant to the surface of the template, wherein the surfactant comprises perfluorobutane sulfonate segments;
depositing an imprinting material on a substrate;
moving the imprint template towards the substrate so that the imprinting material coats the surface of the imprint template and a surface of the substrate; and
energizing the imprinting material to cause a solid material to be produced therefrom.
26. An imprinting material for use in imprint lithography, the imprinting material comprising a polymeric fluorinated surfactant, wherein the polymeric fluorinated surfactant comprises a non-ionic acrylic copolymer based fluorochemical surfactant that comprises perfluorobutane sulfonate segments.
27. The imprinting material of claim 26 further comprising a UV photoinitiator.
28. The imprinting material of claim 27 further comprising acryloxymethylpentamethyldisiloxane, isobornyl acrylate, ethylene glycol diacrylate, and 2-hydroxy-2-methyl-1-phenyl-propan-1-one.
29. The imprinting material of claim 26 wherein the non-ionic acrylic copolymer based fluorochemical surfactant comprises less than about 1% of the imprinting material.
30. A method of providing desirable wetting and release characteristics between a surface of a nanoimprint lithography mold and a polymerizable composition, the method comprising:
coating the surface of the mold with a volume of surfactant-containing solution, the surfactant including a fluorinated hydrophobic component providing a contact angle with a magnitude that is about 26.5° or less with respect to the polymerizable composition.
31. The method of claim 30 , wherein the surfactant-containing solution and the polymerizable composition are substantially the same.
32. The method of claim 30 , wherein the surfactant-containing solution and the polymerizable composition are substantially the same, and coating the surface of the mold with the volume of surfactant-containing solution comprises contacting the surface of the mold with the polymerizable composition.