JP6123396B2 - Imprint method and imprint apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention provides an imprint method in which a resin is supplied to produce a thin film having a desired pattern (a figure composed of a concavo-convex structure such as a line or a pattern) and / or a structure having a smooth thin film having no pattern; The present invention relates to an imprint apparatus used for this imprint method.

In recent years, a pattern forming technique using an imprint method has attracted attention as a fine pattern forming technique that replaces the photolithography technique. The imprint method is a pattern forming technique in which a fine structure is transferred at an equal magnification by using a mold member (mold) having a fine concavo-convex structure and transferring the concavo-convex structure to a molding resin. For example, in an imprint method using a photocurable resin as a molding resin, droplets of the photocurable resin are supplied to the surface of the transfer substrate, and the mold having the desired concavo-convex structure and the transfer substrate are brought to a predetermined distance. The concavo-convex structure is filled with a photocurable resin, and in this state, light is irradiated from the mold side to cure the photocurable resin. A pattern structure having an inverted uneven structure (uneven pattern) is formed.
Such an imprint method has a problem that static electricity is generated when the mold is pulled away from the resin layer, the mold is charged, and foreign matters in the atmosphere are easily attached to the mold. When imprinting is performed in a state where foreign matter or the like is attached to the mold, there is a possibility that a defect of the pattern structure occurs, and further, the mold is damaged. In order to cope with this, for example, when removing the mold from the resin layer, the mold is discharged (Patent Documents 1 and 2), or when the mold potential exceeds a predetermined value. (Patent Document 3) has been proposed.

  In addition, the foreign matter is a solid material that is dried by floating droplets supplied by an ink jet method as a mist, a solid material that is sprayed and dried by spray coating resin, and an imprint apparatus such as an inkjet head. It is a substance that is not intended to be involved in imprinting, such as fine particles generated from constituent members, and dust present in the imprinting apparatus.

JP 2007-98779 A JP 2008-260273 A JP 2009-286085 A

However, when a corona discharge type static eliminator is used as a mold static elimination means, air blowing or air purge is required, and dust generation may occur.
Also, when using a soft X-ray irradiation type static eliminator as a static elimination means for the mold, if the thickness of the mold or transfer substrate is about 1 mm, the soft X-rays cannot be transmitted. Even if soft X-rays are irradiated from the side, it is difficult to obtain a desired charge eliminating effect. For this reason, when using a soft X-ray irradiation type static eliminator, it is necessary to irradiate soft X-rays from the side of the mold or transfer substrate. However, since the soft X-ray irradiation type static eliminator radiates soft X-rays radially with a central angle of about 90 ° to 150 °, soft X-rays are also irradiated to portions that do not require irradiation. . When soft X-rays are irradiated to an inkjet head of an inkjet apparatus, the molding resin present at the droplet discharge port of the inkjet head and the molding resin supplied as droplets from the inkjet head are affected, for example, in the resin composition Effects such as C—F bond and C—C bond breakage occur. If such an effect occurs, the spreadability of the droplets in the gap between the adjacent mold and the transfer substrate, the filling property of the droplets in the uneven structure of the mold, and the remaining film thickness of the formed structure are affected. There is a risk of unevenness and pattern defects.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an imprint method and an imprint apparatus that can prevent a mold from being damaged and can stably produce a high-precision pattern structure. The purpose is to do.

In order to achieve such an object, the imprint apparatus of the present invention supplies a mold holding unit for holding a mold, a substrate holding unit for holding a transfer substrate, and a molding resin to the transfer substrate. An imprint using a resin supply unit to perform, a static eliminating device for supplying ions to a mold held by the mold holding unit, a mold held by the mold holding unit, and a transfer substrate held by the substrate holding unit An air flow adjusting unit that adjusts an air flow in an atmosphere in which the discharge is performed, and the static eliminator includes at least a discharge electrode that generates ions and a power source that supplies a voltage to the discharge electrode, and the discharge electrode ions generated from moves in the Coulomb force, in the cross-sectional view in a section intersecting with the air flow which is adjusted by the air flow adjusting unit, the said discharge electrode Mall Theft has been a parallel der so that configuration.

As another aspect of the present invention, the discharge electrode is configured to be a first discharge electrode that generates either positive ions or negative ions.
As another aspect of the present invention, the discharge electrode generates a first discharge electrode that generates one of positive ions and negative ions, and generates ions having a polarity opposite to that generated by the first discharge electrode. It was set as the 2nd discharge electrode.
As another aspect of the present invention, the discharge electrode is configured to be located in the mold holding portion.

As another aspect of the present invention, the discharge electrode is configured to be positioned on the substrate holding portion .

The imprint apparatus of the present invention can remove electricity by ions with respect to the mold held in the mold holding part, and does not require air blowing or air purge for the movement of ions, so there is no risk of dust generation. The imprint for preventing the breakage of the mold and the like and stably producing a high-precision pattern structure becomes possible.
In the imprint method of the present invention, the charging of the mold in the peeling step of separating the transfer resin layer and the mold is suppressed, and there is no possibility of generating dust because no air blow or air purge is required for the movement of ions. In addition, the mold can be prevented from being damaged and a highly accurate pattern structure can be stably produced.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of an imprint apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the imprint apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a static eliminating device in the imprint apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a partial side view for explaining another embodiment of the imprint apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a side view corresponding to FIG. 1 for explaining another embodiment of the imprint apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the imprint apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is a partial side view for explaining another embodiment of the imprint apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining another embodiment of the imprint apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 9 is a process diagram for explaining the imprint method of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Note that the drawings are schematic or conceptual, and the dimensions of each member, the ratio of sizes between the members, etc. are not necessarily the same as the actual ones, and represent the same members. However, in some cases, the dimensions and ratios may be different depending on the drawing.

[Imprint device]
FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of the imprint apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the imprint apparatus shown in FIG. 1 and 2, the imprint apparatus 1 of the present invention includes a mold holding unit 2 for holding a mold 31, a substrate holding unit 4 for holding a transfer substrate 41, and a molding on the transfer substrate 41. A resin supply unit 6 that supplies resin and a static electricity removing device 8 that supplies ions to the mold 31 held by the mold holding unit 2 are provided.

(Mold holding part 2)
The mold holding unit 2 constituting the imprint apparatus 1 holds the mold 31 so that the surface having the concavo-convex structure region 32 of the mold 31 can be opposed to the transfer substrate 41 held by the substrate holding unit 4. . The holding mechanism of the mold 31 in the mold holding unit 2 may be, for example, a holding mechanism by suction, a holding mechanism by machine clamping, or the like, and the holding mechanism is not particularly limited. Moreover, the mold holding part 2 can be moved up and down in the direction of arrow Z shown in FIG. Above such a mold holding part 2, a light source 12 and an optical system 13 for resin curing when a photo-curing resin is used as a resin to be molded are disposed. There is an opening 2a for irradiating the mold 31 with light from the.
In FIG. 2, only the mold holding unit 2 and the mold 31 are shown, and the lifting device 3, the light source 12, and the optical system 13 are not shown. In the illustrated example, the mold 31 has a so-called mesa structure in which the concavo-convex structure region 32 has a stepped structure, but the mold to be used may not have a mesa structure.

  (Substrate holder 4)

  The substrate holding unit 4 constituting the imprint apparatus 1 holds a transfer substrate 41 for imprinting, and the holding mechanism of the transfer substrate 41 is, for example, a holding mechanism by suction, a holding mechanism by mechanical clamping, or the like. The holding mechanism is not particularly limited. The substrate holding unit 4 can be moved on the XY stage 5 in a horizontal plane shown in the X direction and the Y direction in FIG. 2 by a drive mechanism unit (not shown). In the illustrated example, the substrate holding unit 4 is located at the transfer substrate supply position, and the transfer is performed on the XY stage 5 so as to face the mold holding unit 2 and to transfer the resin to be molded supplied from the resin supply unit 6. It can be moved to a position or the like. The imprint apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the illustrated example, and can move arbitrary members of the mold holding unit 2, the substrate holding unit 4, and the resin supply unit 6, and their relative positions are It may be an aspect that can be changed.

(Resin supply unit 6)
The resin supply unit 6 constituting the imprint apparatus 1 supplies resin to be molded onto the transfer substrate 41 held by the substrate holding unit 4. For example, the resin supply unit 6 includes an inkjet device. It's okay. In the illustrated example, only the ink jet head 7 of the ink jet apparatus provided in the resin supply unit 6 is shown, and the direction in which droplets of the molding resin are ejected is indicated by solid arrows in FIG. The ink jet device provided in the resin supply unit 6 is a desired operation of the ink jet head 7 when supplying droplets of the molding resin onto the transfer substrate 41 held by the substrate holding unit 4, for example, X shown in FIG. And / or a Y-direction drive unit, an ink supply unit to the inkjet head 7, and a control unit that controls the inkjet head 7, the drive unit, and the ink supply unit. .
The resin supply unit 6 may supply resin to be molded onto the transfer substrate 41 by spin coating. In this case, the drive mechanism for rotating the transfer substrate 41 may be built in the substrate holding unit 4, or provided separately from the substrate holding unit 4 and after supplying the molding resin onto the transfer substrate 41. The transfer substrate 41 may be configured to be held by the substrate holding unit 4.

(Static eliminator 8)
The static eliminator 8 constituting the imprint apparatus 1 supplies ions to the mold 31 held by the mold holding unit 2. The discharge electrode 9 is located on the mold holding unit 2, and the discharge electrode 9. At least a power supply (not shown) for supplying a voltage to the. In the illustrated example, the discharge electrode 9 is a first discharge electrode 9a that generates either positive ions or negative ions, and both sides of the mold 31 in a plan view of the surface of the mold holding unit 2 that holds the mold 31. Two first discharge electrodes 9a are arranged so as to face each other.

  In such a static eliminator 8, positive ions or negative ions are generated by applying a positive or negative voltage to the first discharge electrode 9a from a power source (not shown), and generated from the first discharge electrode 9a. The ions moved by the Coulomb force and supplied to the mold 31 held by the mold holding unit 2. FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a state where positive ions are generated from the first discharge electrode 9a of the static eliminator 8. The positive ions move mainly by mutual repulsive force (Coulomb force), and the mold holding unit 2 Is supplied to the mold 31 held in the mold. Therefore, for example, when the mold 31 is negatively charged, the static electricity of the mold 31 can be removed by supplying positive ions from the first discharge electrode 9a of the static eliminator 8 as shown in FIG. . When the mold 31 is positively charged, the static electricity charged in the mold 31 can be removed by supplying negative ions from the first discharge electrode 9a of the static electricity removing device 8.

  An example of the imprint operation in the imprint apparatus 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the substrate holding unit 4 holding the transfer substrate 41 moves to the resin supply position on the XY stage 5, and the droplets of the molding resin are supplied from the inkjet head 7 of the resin supply unit 6 to the holding transfer substrate 41. Receive. Thereafter, the substrate holding unit 4 moves to the transfer position on the XY stage 5 so that the mold holding unit 2 and the substrate holding unit 4 come close to each other in the Z direction, whereby the resin to be molded is interposed between the mold 31 and the transfer substrate 41. The droplets are developed to form a molded resin layer. Next, light irradiation is performed from the light source 12 through the optical system 13, and the molded resin layer is cured to form a transfer resin layer to which the concavo-convex structure is transferred. Thereafter, ions are generated from the first discharge electrode 9a of the static eliminator 8, and in this state, the mold holding unit 2 and the substrate holding unit 4 are separated in the Z direction. The polarity of ions generated from the first discharge electrode 9a is opposite to the polarity of static electricity charged in the mold 31. As a result, the transfer resin layer and the mold 31 are separated from each other, and the pattern structure, which is the transfer resin layer, is positioned on the transfer substrate 41. The static electricity charged on the mold 31 due to the separation from the transfer resin layer is the first Is removed by ions supplied from the discharge electrode 9a.

Further, in the imprint apparatus 1, the static electricity removing apparatus 8 has a range in which the droplets of the molding resin supplied from the inkjet head 7 and the resin droplets supplied onto the transfer substrate 41 are not adversely affected. It is also possible to generate ions from the first discharge electrode 9a at any time.
In the imprint apparatus 1, as shown in FIG. 4, the discharge electrode 9 constituting the static eliminator 8 is replaced with a first discharge electrode 9 a that generates either positive ions or negative ions. It is good also as what consists of the 2nd discharge electrode 9b which produces | generates the ion of the polarity opposite to the ion which the discharge electrode 9a generate | occur | produces. Thereby, depending on the material of the mold 31 to be used and the positional relationship on the charged column with the resin to be molded, ion generation from the first discharge electrode 9a, ion generation from the second discharge electrode 9b, It can be properly used. For example, when the first discharge electrode 9a generates positive ions and the second discharge electrode 9b generates negative ions, the first discharge electrode 9a is negatively charged due to the positional relationship on the charge train. By supplying positive ions from the electrode 9a, static electricity of the mold 31 can be removed. Further, when the mold 31 is positively charged, the static electricity charged in the mold 31 can be removed by supplying negative ions from the second discharge electrode 9b.

  Further, when ions are generated simultaneously from the first discharge electrode 9a and the second discharge electrode 9b, the charges generated by the ions generated from the first discharge electrode 9a and the ions generated from the second discharge electrode 9b are canceled. Therefore, the voltage applied to the discharge electrode (for example, the first discharge electrode 9a) that generates ions of the opposite polarity to the static electricity charged in the mold 31 is set to the voltage of the other discharge electrode (for example, the second discharge electrode 9b). By making the height higher, ions for removing static electricity charged in the mold 31 can be supplied. Moreover, by configuring in this way, electric lines of force are formed between the first discharge electrode 9a and the second discharge electrode 9b, and the action of removing static electricity of the mold 31 by the electric lines of force is also expressed.

FIG. 5 is a side view corresponding to FIG. 1 and showing another embodiment of the imprint apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 5, an imprint apparatus 1 ′ of the present invention includes a mold holding unit 2 for holding a mold 31, a substrate holding unit 4 for holding a transfer substrate 41, and a molding resin on the transfer substrate 41. A resin supply unit 6 to supply and an electrostatic removal device 8 to supply ions to the mold 31 held by the mold holding unit 2 are provided.
The imprint apparatus 1 ′ is the same as the above-described imprint apparatus 1 except for the static eliminator 8, and description of the mold holding unit 2, the substrate holding unit 4, and the resin supply unit 6 is omitted.
The static eliminator 8 that constitutes the imprint apparatus 1 ′ includes at least a discharge electrode 9 positioned on the substrate holding unit 4 and a power source (not shown) that supplies a voltage to the discharge electrode 9. In the illustrated example, the discharge electrode 9 is a first discharge electrode 9 a that generates either positive ions or negative ions, and the transfer substrate 41 in a plan view of the surface of the substrate holder 4 that holds the transfer substrate 41. Two first discharge electrodes 9a are arranged so as to face both sides of the first discharge electrode 9a. In such a static eliminator 8, positive ions or negative ions are generated by applying a positive or negative voltage to the first discharge electrode 9a from a power source (not shown), and generated from the first discharge electrode 9a. These ions move mainly by Coulomb force.

In such an imprint apparatus 1 ′ of the present invention, as in the above-described imprint operation of the imprint apparatus 1, the operation until the molded resin layer is cured and the transfer resin layer to which the concavo-convex structure is transferred is formed. Then, ions are generated from the first discharge electrode 9a of the static eliminator 8 located on the substrate holding unit 4, and in this state, the mold holding unit 2 and the substrate holding unit 4 are separated in the Z direction. be able to. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the mold holding unit 2, the substrate holding unit 4, and the static electricity removing device 8 of the imprint apparatus 1 ′ in such a state. The static electricity charged in the mold 31 due to the peeling from the transfer resin layer is the ions supplied from the first discharge electrode 9a and moved mainly by the Coulomb force (in the illustrated example, the mold 31 is charged positively. The negative ions are supplied from the discharge electrode 9a.
Also in this imprint apparatus 1 ′, as shown in FIG. 7, the discharge electrode 9 constituting the static eliminator 8 is replaced with a first discharge electrode 9a that generates either positive ions or negative ions, It is good also as what consists of the 2nd discharge electrode 9b which produces | generates the ion of the polarity opposite to the ion which this 1st discharge electrode 9a generate | occur | produces.

In such an imprint apparatus of the present invention, charging of the mold 31 due to static electricity generated when the transfer resin layer and the mold 31 are separated from each other is hindered, and no air blow or air purge is required for the movement of ions. There is no possibility that it will occur, thereby preventing foreign matter from adhering to the mold 31, preventing defects in the pattern structure, breakage of the mold, etc., and a highly accurate pattern structure can be stably produced.
The above-described embodiment of the imprint apparatus is an exemplification, and the present invention is not limited to the embodiment. For example, the mold holding unit 2, the substrate holding unit 4, the resin supply unit 6, and the static electricity removing device 8 can be arranged inside the casing.

  The imprint apparatus of the present invention further includes an air flow adjusting unit that adjusts an air flow in an atmosphere in which imprinting is performed using the mold held by the mold holding unit and the transfer substrate held by the substrate holding unit. There may be. The air flow adjusting unit may supply a desired gas such as helium or nitrogen in a predetermined direction, and may be configured by, for example, a gas reservoir, a conduit, a nozzle, or the like. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the direction of the airflow C supplied from the airflow adjusting unit to the mold 31 held by the mold holding unit 2 by the arrow in the imprint apparatus 1 described above. In the case shown in FIG. 8, the two first discharge electrodes 9 a and the mold 31 are in parallel in a cross-sectional view in a cross-section (cross-section shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 8) intersecting the air flow C. It is preferable that there is no overlap with the first discharge electrode 9a. Thereby, even if dust generation occurs at the discharge electrode 9 of the static eliminator, it is possible to prevent the airflow C from being sent to the mold 31. Further, the first discharge electrode and / or the second discharge electrode may be arranged so as to be positioned at the four corners of the mold or the transfer substrate. Thereby, static elimination of a mold and / or a transfer substrate can be performed more effectively.

  Further, the above-described imprint apparatuses 1 and 1 ′ are configured to cure the resin layer to be molded by light irradiation through the optical system 13 from the light source 12 disposed on the mold holding unit 2 side. Is based on the premise that the mold 31 to be used is made of a light-transmitting material such as quartz. When the mold 31 to be used is made of a light-shielding material and light irradiation from the substrate holder 4 through the transfer substrate 41 is possible, the light source 12 and the optical system 13 can be disposed on the substrate holder 4 side. . Even if the mold 31 to be used is made of a light transmissive material, the light source 12 and the optical system 13 are connected to the substrate holding unit 4 side when light irradiation from the substrate holding unit 4 through the transfer substrate 41 is possible. Further, the light source 12 and the optical system 13 may be arranged on both the mold holding unit 2 side and the substrate holding unit 4 side. When a thermosetting resin is used as the resin to be molded, the imprint apparatus of the present invention may have a configuration in which the light source 12 and the optical system 13 are not provided.

[Imprint method]
The imprint method of the present invention includes a resin supply process, a contact process, a curing process, and a mold release process. Then, an electrostatic removal device that generates ions from the discharge electrode, moves the ions with Coulomb force, and supplies the ions to the surface having the concavo-convex structure of the mold is disposed, and at least in the mold release process, the electrostatic removal device is used. Static elimination is performed.
Such an imprinting method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 9 by taking the case of using the above-described imprinting apparatus 1 of the present invention as an example. In FIG. 9, only the transfer substrate and the mold, and the mold holding unit and the static eliminating device are shown, and other members constituting the imprint apparatus 1 are not shown, and are not shown in the following description. For the members, the corresponding member numbers of the imprint apparatus 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are described in parentheses.

<Resin supply process>
In the present invention, the substrate holding portion (4) holding the transfer substrate 41 moves to the resin supply position, and the desired on the imprint transfer substrate 41 held by the substrate holding portion (4) in the resin supply step. In this region, the resin-molded droplets 51 are discharged and supplied from the inkjet head (7) of the resin supply section (6) (FIG. 9A).
The transfer substrate 41 used in the imprinting method of the present invention can be appropriately selected. For example, glass such as quartz, soda lime glass, borosilicate glass, semiconductor such as silicon, gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, polycarbonate, polypropylene, It may be a resin substrate such as polyethylene, a metal substrate, or a composite material substrate made of any combination of these materials. Further, for example, a desired pattern structure such as a fine wiring used in a semiconductor or a display, a photonic crystal structure, an optical waveguide, or an optical structure such as holography may be formed.

The resin to be molded is not particularly limited as long as it has fluidity that can be ejected from an inkjet head, and examples thereof include a photocurable resin, a thermosetting resin, and a thermoplastic resin. For example, the photocurable resin is composed of a main agent, an initiator, and a crosslinking agent, and if necessary, improves the adhesion to a mold release agent for suppressing adhesion to the mold and the transfer substrate 41. It may contain the adhesive for making it do. And according to the use of the pattern structure manufactured by the imprint method, a required characteristic, a physical property, etc., the to-be-molded resin to be used can be selected suitably. For example, if the use of the pattern structure is a lithography application, it is required to have etching resistance, a low viscosity and a small residual film thickness, and if the use of the pattern structure is an optical member, a specific refractive index, Light transmittance is required, and a photocurable resin can be appropriately selected according to these requirements. However, in any application, it is required to have characteristics (viscosity, surface tension, etc.) satisfying the compatibility with the ink jet head to be used. Note that the viscosity, surface tension, and the like of a compatible liquid differ depending on the structure and material of the inkjet head. For this reason, it is preferable to appropriately adjust the viscosity, surface tension and the like of the molding resin to be used, or to appropriately select an ink jet head suitable for the molding resin to be used.
In addition, the number of molding resin droplets 51 supplied from the inkjet head (7) of the resin supply unit (6) onto the transfer substrate 41, the distance between adjacent droplets, the amount of droplets to be dropped, and the necessity. It can be set as appropriate based on the total amount of the photocurable resin, the wettability of the photocurable resin with respect to the substrate, the gap between the mold 31 and the transfer substrate 41 in the subsequent contact step.

<Contact process>
Next, the substrate holding part (4) is moved from the resin supply position to the transfer position, the mold holding part 2 and the substrate holding part (4) are brought close to each other, and the mold 31 having the concavo-convex structure and the transfer substrate 41 are brought close to each other. Then, a resin droplet 51 is developed between the mold 31 and the transfer substrate 41 to form a photocurable resin layer 52 (FIG. 9B).
In the illustrated example, the mold 31 has a mesa structure having a convex structure portion, and the concavo-convex structure region 32 is located in the convex structure portion. Although the material of such a mold 31 can be selected as appropriate, it can be formed using a transparent substrate that can transmit irradiation light for curing the photocurable resin layer. For example, quartz glass, silicic acid series can be used. Glass, calcium fluoride, magnesium fluoride, acrylic glass, or any of these laminated materials can be used. The thickness of the mold 31 can be set in consideration of the shape of the concavo-convex structure, material strength, handling suitability, and the like, and can be set as appropriate within a range of about 300 μm to 10 mm, for example. The mold 31 may not have a mesa structure.

<Curing process>
Next, light irradiation is performed from the mold 31 side, and the photocurable resin layer 52 is cured to form a transfer resin layer 55 to which the uneven structure of the mold 31 is transferred (FIG. 9C). In this curing step, when the transfer substrate 41 is made of a light-transmitting material, light irradiation may be performed from the transfer substrate 41 side, or light irradiation may be performed from both sides of the transfer substrate 41 and the mold 31.
When the resin to be molded is a thermosetting resin or a thermoplastic resin, the resin can be cured by subjecting the resin layer 52 to a heat treatment or a cooling (cooling) treatment. it can.

<Release process>
Next, in the mold release step, the transfer resin layer 55 and the mold 31 are separated, and the pattern structure 61 that is the transfer resin layer 55 is positioned on the transfer substrate 41 (FIG. 9D).
In this mold release process, ions are generated from the first discharge electrode 9a of the static eliminator 8, and the mold 31 is neutralized.
The static eliminator 8 generates ions (negative ions in the illustrated example) having the opposite polarity to the static electricity charged in the mold 31 from the first discharge electrode 9a by separating the transfer resin layer 55 and the mold 31 from each other. Thus, the ions generated from the first discharge electrode 9a are supplied to the mold 31 by Coulomb force, and the static electricity charged on the mold 31 is removed by peeling from the transfer resin layer 55.
The supply of ions from the static eliminator 8 in the release step is performed so that the mold 31 can be neutralized, and the supply timing can be set as appropriate. For example, it can be performed when the transfer resin layer 55 and the mold 31 are separated, or after the separation of the transfer resin layer 55 and the mold 31 is completed. Further, after the curing process is completed, the supply of ions from the static electricity removing device 8 is started, and the supply of ions is continued until the separation of the transfer resin layer 55 and the mold 31 is completed and the substrate holding unit (4) starts moving. You may continue.

In the above-described imprint method of the present invention, the charging of the mold in the peeling step of separating the transfer resin layer and the mold is suppressed, and there is no possibility of generating dust because no air blow or air purge is required for the movement of ions. Thereby, breakage of the mold, deterioration of the resin to be molded, and the like are prevented, and a highly accurate pattern structure can be stably produced. Such an imprint method of the present invention can be used for manufacturing semiconductor devices, replica molds using a master mold, and the like.
The above-described embodiment of the imprint method is an exemplification, and the present invention is not limited to this. For example, in the imprint method of the present invention, the resin supply step, as long as it does not adversely affect the molding resin supplied from the inkjet head (7) and the molding resin droplets 51 supplied onto the transfer substrate 41, In the contact step and the curing step, ions may be generated as needed from the static eliminator (8).

  The present invention can be applied to the manufacture of various pattern structures using an imprint method and the fine processing of workpieces such as substrates.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,1 '... Imprint apparatus 2 ... Mold holding part 4 ... Board | substrate holding part 6 ... Resin supply part 7 ... Inkjet head 8 ... Static electricity removal apparatus 9 ... Discharge electrode 9a ... 1st discharge electrode 9b ... 2nd discharge electrode 31 ... Mold 41 ... Transfer substrate 51 ... Droplet 52 ... Molded resin layer 55 ... Transfer resin layer

Claims (5)

Ions are applied to the mold holding unit for holding the mold, the substrate holding unit for holding the transfer substrate, the resin supply unit for supplying the molding resin to the transfer substrate, and the mold held by the mold holding unit. A static electricity removing device to supply, and an air flow adjusting unit that adjusts an air flow in an atmosphere in which imprinting is performed using the mold held by the mold holding unit and the transfer substrate held by the substrate holding unit, and
The static eliminator includes at least a discharge electrode that generates ions and a power source that supplies a voltage to the discharge electrode, and the ions generated from the discharge electrode move by Coulomb force ,
In the cross-sectional view in a section intersecting with the air flow which is adjusted by the air flow adjusting unit, the imprint apparatus wherein a discharge electrode and said mold and said parallel der Rukoto.   The imprint apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharge electrode is a first discharge electrode that generates either positive ions or negative ions.   The discharge electrode is a first discharge electrode that generates either positive ions or negative ions, and a second discharge electrode that generates ions having a polarity opposite to the ions generated by the first discharge electrode. The imprint apparatus according to claim 1.   The imprint apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharge electrode is located in the mold holding unit.   The imprint apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharge electrode is located in the substrate holding part.

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