WO2010050679A2

WO2010050679A2 - Imprinting apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2010050679A2
Application number: PCT/KR2009/005687
Authority: WO
Inventors: 곽신웅
Original assignee: 에이피시스템 주식회사
Priority date: 2008-10-29
Filing date: 2009-10-06
Publication date: 2010-05-06
Also published as: KR101023440B1; KR20100047416A; WO2010050679A3

Abstract

The present invention relates to an imprinting apparatus for imprinting a pattern on a substrate using a stamp. More particularly, the present invention relates to an imprinting apparatus which prevents slippage and enables pressure to be uniformly applied when the stamp and the substrate are stacked into a layer and pressed, thereby improving the characteristics of the pattern imprinted on the substrate. To this end, the imprinting apparatus according to the present invention comprises a press housing having a bottom surface with an opening, an elastic press plate arranged to seal the opening, and made of an elastic material, an assistant press plate which is fixed onto an upper surface of the elastic press plate, and which has an upper surface on which the stamp and the substrate are stacked, and which is made of a hard material, and a press chamber which includes an exhaust pipe arranged at a side surface of the press housing, and an exhaust pump connected to the exhaust pipe, to discharge air from the inside of the press housing to the outside. The elastic press plate moves upward when air is discharged from the inside of the press housing to the outside, to thereby enable the stamp and the substrate to be tightly pressed against each other by the assistant press plate and an upper surface of the press housing.

Description

[Correction according to Rule 26. 21.10.2009] Imprinting device

The present invention relates to an imprinting apparatus for imprinting a pattern on a substrate by using a stamp. In particular, the present invention relates to imprinting a substrate by applying a pressure to the laminated stamp and the substrate to prevent slipping and to apply a uniform pressure. The present invention relates to an imprinting apparatus capable of improving the characteristics of a pattern.

The technique for forming nanometer-sized patterns is often referred to as nanotechnology (NT). Nanotechnology is a technology that produces and utilizes nanometer-sized materials, structures, instruments, machines and devices.

In general, materials and devices having a size of 100 nm or less fall into the category of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is a basic technology that realizes information technology (IT) and biotechnology (BT). Applied technology is closely related to nanotechnology.

A key technology in nanotechnology with the above meaning is nanoprocess technology that enables the production and utilization of nanometer-sized materials and devices, and lithography technology that forms nanometer-sized ultra-fine patterns. Yes.

Optical lithography techniques have been mainly used as lithography techniques for forming fine patterns. However, the optical lithography technique is excellent for forming micron-sized patterns having a size of 100 nm or more, but has a limitation in forming ultra-fine nanopatterns having a size of less than that.

Accordingly, X-ray lithography, electron beam lithography, proximal lithography, nanoimprinting lithography, and the like have been proposed as an alternative to optical lithography.

Among these, nano-imprinting lithography technology can easily form nano-patterns, can be mass-produced, and can be used to form micrometer-sized patterns as well as advantages of high process yield. It is in the limelight as an alternative lithography technology.

That is, in the imprinting lithography process, as can be seen through (a) of FIG. 1, the stamp 10 is placed on the upper side of the substrate 20 in the state where the stamp 10 is placed on the substrate ( After pressing the upper surface of 20), as shown in (b) of Figure 1 includes the step of separating the stamp 10 from the substrate 20.

In this case, the stamp 10 includes a substrate 11 for a stamp and a pattern structure 12 having a nanometer or micrometer size formed under the stamp 11, and the substrate 20 has a base substrate 21 and a polymer formed thereon. (22).

In the stamp substrate 11 and the base substrate 21, a silicon substrate which is easy to process is used a lot, and the pattern structure 12 generally uses silicon oxide (SiOx), and the polymer 22 is made of polymethyl meta. A methacrylate (PMMA), a thermoplastic resin, various resins polymerized by ultraviolet rays, etc. are used.

Therefore, when the substrate 20 is pressed using the stamp 10 as described above, the pattern 23 corresponding to the pattern structure 12 of the stamp 10 is formed on the polymer 22 formed on the upper surface of the substrate 20. The base substrate 21 is etched using the cured polymer 22 as a mask by irradiating light such as ultraviolet rays to the polymer 22 in which the pattern 23 is imprinted and thus imprinted. To be able.

On the other hand, when pressing the substrate 20 using the stamp 10 as described above, if the stamp 10 and the position of the substrate 20 is not crimped in a precisely aligned state, the pattern in nanometer or micrometer unit 23 It is a fatal defect in an imprinting lithography process that requires

Thus, in Patent Publication No. 2005-49302 'Imprinting apparatus and substrate support device', as can be seen through Figure 2 (a), the upper surface is provided with a transparent plate 120, the lower surface is an elastic plate 130 is formed, and the substrate supporting assembly structure 100 on which the exhaust pipe 111 is formed is presented.

Therefore, when the internal air is discharged to the outside through the exhaust pipe 111, the elastic plate 130 is elastically bent as shown in FIG. 2 (b), and the stamp 10 placed on the upper portion of the elastic plate 130 and The substrate 20 is pressed together by the stamp 10 and the transparent plate 120, so that the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 can be stably squeezed in a state aligned in position.

In addition, the ultraviolet light emitted from the outside by using the stamp substrate 11 as a transparent material sequentially passes through the transparent plate 120 and the stamp substrate 11 to be irradiated to the polymer 22 having the pattern 23 formed thereon. By doing so, the polymer 22 is cured.

However, according to the above configuration, since the elastic plate 130 is elastically bent, the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 are squeezed and thus, a slip is formed between the elastic plate 130 and the substrate 20. This, of course, naturally caused a slip between the stamp 10 and the substrate 20, thereby causing a problem that the pattern 23 was not accurately formed.

In addition, as can be seen through (a) of Figure 3, in the process of elastic bending of the elastic plate 130, the entire elastic plate 130 is not uniformly bent with a predetermined slope (S), the base substrate (21) There was a problem that the pattern 23 formed on the polymer 22 on the upper side was also formed along a predetermined slope.

Furthermore, as can be seen through (b) of Figure 3, even if the elastic plate 130 does not bend with a certain inclination, the projections or peaks of the elastic plate 130 itself or the elastic plate 130 is elastic There was a problem that the uneven portion 24, which should not be in the pattern 23, occurred as the local portion was bent further in the bending process.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the problems described above, by applying a pressure to the laminated stamp and the substrate to prevent the slip, as well as to apply a uniform pressure, the characteristics of the pattern imprinted on the substrate It is an object of the present invention to provide an imprinting apparatus that can be improved.

To this end, the imprinting apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an imprinting apparatus for imprinting a pattern on a substrate by using a stamp, the imprinting apparatus comprising: a crimp housing having an opening formed at a bottom thereof; A compression elastic plate which is installed to seal the opening and is made of an elastic material; An auxiliary pressing plate fixed to an upper side of the pressing elastic plate and placed in a state where the stamp and the substrate are stacked, and made of a hard material; An exhaust pipe installed on a side of the compression housing to discharge air inside the compression housing to the outside; And an exhaust pump connected to the exhaust pipe, wherein when the air inside the compression housing is discharged to the outside, the compression elastic plate rises, such that the stamp and the substrate are formed on the auxiliary compression plate and the compression housing. It is characterized by being pressed to each other by the surface.

At this time, the auxiliary pressing plate is preferably made of a ceramic material.

In addition, the auxiliary pressing plate is preferably made of a metal material.

In addition, the upper surface of the crimp housing is preferably made of a transparent plate through which light is transmitted.

The pressure chamber may further include a pressure chamber coupled to a lower side of the compression chamber, the pressure chamber including: a pressure housing having an opening formed on an upper surface thereof to expose a compression elastic plate installed on a bottom surface of the compression housing; A supply pipe installed at a side of the pressure housing so that outside air is supplied into the pressure housing; And a supply pump installed in the supply pipe, it is preferable that the outside air supplied into the pressure housing presses the compression elastic plate from the bottom up.

As described above, the imprinting apparatus of the present invention applies pressure to the stacked stamp and the substrate, thereby compressing the stamp and the substrate by the auxiliary pressing plate, thereby preventing slip and of course uniform pressure. Therefore, it is possible to improve the characteristics of the pattern imprinted on the substrate.

1 is an operational state diagram showing an imprinting lithography process using a general stamp and substrate.

Figure 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an imprinting apparatus according to the prior art.

3 is a view showing a pattern produced by the imprinting apparatus according to the prior art.

4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an imprinting apparatus according to the present invention.

[Correction under Rule 91 11.11.2009]
5 is an operational state diagram of the imprinting apparatus according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, an imprinting apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

However, hereinafter, the coupling structure of the pressing chamber itself, the coupling structure of the pressing chamber itself, or the coupling structure of the pressing chamber and the pressing chamber (such as a fastening bolt or a connecting frame) and a transfer device for a stamp and a substrate will be described below. Omit it.

That is, these structures can be carried out at the level of ordinary skill in the art even without a detailed description, and are described in detail in the aforementioned Patent Publication No. 2005-49302 and the like, and thus detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Figure 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an imprinting apparatus according to the present invention, Figure 4 is an operating state diagram of the imprinting apparatus according to the present invention.

First, as can be seen through Figure 4, in the imprinting apparatus according to the present invention, the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 as shown in Figure 1 is placed largely and the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 is crimped The pressing chamber 200 and the pressure chamber 300 coupled to the lower portion of the pressing chamber 200 to assist the pressing of the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 is included.

At this time, the crimp housing 210 constituting the body of the crimping chamber 200 has an opening formed on the bottom surface, the hollow portion in which the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 of FIG. It is.

In addition, the opening formed on the bottom surface of the crimping housing 210 is provided with a crimp elastic plate 230 made of an elastic material to seal the opening.

In addition, the auxiliary pressing plate 240 is fixed to the upper side of the pressing elastic plate 230, the auxiliary pressing plate 240 is coupled horizontally with the pressing elastic plate 230.

The auxiliary pressing plate 240 is to prevent slipping with the substrate 20 and the stamp 10 that are placed on the upper portion of the auxiliary pressing plate 240 and to uniformly compress the entire bottom surface of the substrate 20. Is done.

As a hard material used as the material of the auxiliary pressing plate 240, a ceramic material such as silicon, a metal material such as nickel or stainless may be used.

In addition, an exhaust pipe 211 is installed at a side of the crimping housing 210, and the exhaust pipe 211 has one end side of the crimping housing 210 to provide a passage through which air inside the crimping housing 210 is discharged to the outside. It is installed in communication with.

The other end of the exhaust pipe 211 is connected to an exhaust pump (not shown) so as to forcibly suck air in the compression housing 210 and discharge it to the outside.

In addition, the upper surface of the crimping housing 210 is composed of a transparent plate 220 through which light is transmitted, which is a curing light irradiated from an ultraviolet or infrared lamp (L) installed on the outside formed on the upper surface of the substrate 20. In order to irradiate the polymer 22 formed with a pattern 23 in nanometer or micrometer units.

Of course, in this case, the stamp substrate 11 constituting the stamp 10 also serves as a transparent substrate so that the curing light can reach the substrate 20 arranged under the stamp 10.

Therefore, in the present invention, as the air inside the compression housing 210 is discharged to the outside, the compression elastic plate 230 is raised to align and stack by the auxiliary compression plate 240 and the upper surface of the compression housing 210. The stamp 10 and the substrate 20 can be pressed against each other.

In particular, in the present invention, in the pressing of the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 as described above, by further providing an auxiliary pressing plate 240 between the substrate 20 and the pressing elastic plate 230, the substrate as in the prior art In addition to preventing slip between the 20 and the elastic plate (see 130 of FIG. 2), the slip between the substrate 20 and the stamp 10 can be prevented accordingly.

In addition, since the auxiliary pressing plate 240 made of a cured material such as ceramic or metal uniformly compresses the entire lower surface of the substrate 20, it is possible to prevent a defect of the pattern 23 as described with reference to FIG. 3. do.

On the other hand, the present invention further includes a pressing chamber 300 coupled to the lower portion of the pressing housing 210 to assist the pressing of the stamp 10 and the substrate 20. That is, in addition to the method of discharging the air in the compression housing 210 to the outside by an exhaust pipe 211 and an exhaust pump (not shown) installed in the compression housing 210 is further provided with an auxiliary compression means.

To this end, an opening is formed on an upper surface of the pressure housing 310 constituting the body of the pressure chamber 300. Therefore, the compression elastic plate 230 installed on the bottom surface of the compression housing 210 is exposed to the inside of the pressure housing 310.

In addition, the supply pipe 310 is installed on the side of the pressure housing 310, the supply pipe 310 has one end connected to the side of the pressure housing 310 so as to provide a passage through which the outside air is sucked into the pressure housing 310. It is installed through.

The other end of the supply pipe 310 is installed in connection with a supply pump (not shown) for forcibly supplying outside air into the pressure housing 310.

Therefore, when the supply pump is operated and the outside air is supplied into the pressure housing 310, the forced supply of the outside air pushes the compression elastic plate 230 upward from the bottom through the opening portion, whereby the stamp 10 and the substrate ( 20) to aid in compression.

However, in the above, although the pressure chamber 300 is an example of being coupled to the lower part of the compression chamber 200, the compression chamber 200, even when installed so as to be located inside the pressure chamber 300, It will be apparent that the compression of the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 can be assisted as well.

Hereinafter, the operation of the imprinting apparatus according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, the auxiliary press plate 240 installed on the lower portion of the crimp housing 210 by transferring the stamp 10 on which the pattern structure 12 is formed and the substrate 20 on which the polymer 22 is formed. Put on top. In this case, the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 are stacked and aligned with each other such that the pattern structure 12 faces the polymer 22.

When the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 are supplied and ready for compression, an exhaust pump (not shown) is operated to allow air inside the compression housing 210 to be discharged to the outside through the exhaust pipe 211. .

Then, as shown in FIG. 5, as the pressure inside the compression housing 210 decreases, the compression elastic plate 230 made of an elastic material elastically rises upwards, and thus the auxiliary compression plate 240 fixed on the compression elastic plate 230. ) Also rises, raising the laminated stamp 10 and the substrate 20.

Accordingly, the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 are compressed to each other by the upper surface of the elastically elevated auxiliary pressing plate 240 and the fixed pressing housing 210, that is, the transparent plate 220. The pattern 23 is carved out by the polymer 22 of.

At this time, the present invention, compared to the prior art directly press the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 by the elastic body plate (see 130 of FIG. 1), the auxiliary pressing plate of a hard material provided on the pressing elastic plate 230 Since the stamp 10 compresses the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 by using the 240, the accurate pattern 23 may be imprinted on the accurate substrate 20 by uniformly compressing the entire substrate 20 as well as preventing slip. Make sure

Meanwhile, when the exhaust pump is operated to suck air in the compression housing 210 as described above, a supply pump (not shown) installed in the pressure housing 310 is also operated.

Therefore, the outside air is forcibly supplied by the feed pump, the pressure inside the pressurized housing 310 is increased by the outside air forced into the pressurized housing 310 through the supply pipe 310, and the exposed pressure is exposed through the opening. The elastic plate 230 is pushed upward from the bottom.

That is, when pressing the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 in the pressing chamber 200, it is possible to assist the pressing of the stamp 10 and the substrate 20 in the pressing chamber 300.

As described above, when the pattern 23 is imprinted on the polymer 22 of the substrate 20 through the pressing process, the ultraviolet lamp L installed outside is turned on.

Then, the polymer 22 of the substrate 20 in which the light irradiated from the ultraviolet lamp L is imprinted with the pattern 23 through the transparent plate 220 of the crimping housing 210 and the stamp 10 made of a transparent material. Up to which the polymer 22 is cured by the transmitted light.

Then, the substrate 20 is transferred to a dry etching apparatus, a wet etching apparatus, or other etching apparatus using a transfer apparatus, and the etching process is completed, thereby completing the process.

In the above, the specific Example of this invention was described above. However, the spirit and scope of the present invention is not limited to these specific embodiments, and various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Those who have it will understand.

Therefore, since the embodiments described above are provided to completely inform the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, it should be understood that they are exemplary in all respects and not limited. The invention is only defined by the scope of the claims.

Imprinting apparatus of the present invention by applying a pressure to the laminated stamp and the substrate to prevent the slip during compression, as well as to apply a uniform pressure, thereby improving the characteristics of the pattern imprinted on the substrate, nanometer or It enables the development of the micrometer industry.

Claims

An imprinting apparatus for imprinting a pattern on a substrate using a stamp,

A crimp housing having an opening formed at a bottom thereof;

A compression elastic plate which is installed to seal the opening and is made of an elastic material;

An auxiliary pressing plate fixed to an upper side of the pressing elastic plate and placed in a state where the stamp and the substrate are stacked, and made of a hard material;

An exhaust pipe installed on a side of the compression housing to discharge air inside the compression housing to the outside; And

Including a compression chamber consisting of; an exhaust pump connected to the exhaust pipe,

And the stamp and the substrate are pressed together by the auxiliary pressing plate and the upper surface of the pressing housing when air inside the pressing housing is discharged to the outside.
The method of claim 1,

The auxiliary pressing plate is an imprinting apparatus, characterized in that made of a ceramic material.
The method of claim 1,

The auxiliary pressing plate is an imprinting apparatus, characterized in that made of a metal material.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,

Imprinting apparatus, characterized in that the upper surface of the pressing housing is made of a transparent plate through which light is transmitted.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,

Further comprising a pressure chamber coupled to the lower side of the compression chamber,

The pressurization chamber,

A pressurized housing having an open portion formed at an upper surface thereof so that a crimp elastic plate installed on the bottom surface of the crimp housing is exposed;

A supply pipe installed at a side of the pressure housing so that outside air is supplied into the pressure housing; And

Including; supply pump installed in the supply pipe;

Imprinting apparatus, characterized in that the outside air supplied into the pressure housing to press the compression elastic plate from the bottom up.