Fast thermal nanoimprint lithography by a stamp with integrated heater

We propose fast nanoimprinting lithography (NIL) process based on the use of stamps with integrated heater. The latter consists of heavily ion implantation n-type doped silicon layer buried below the microstructured surface of the stamp. The stamp is heated by Joule effect, by 50 mu s 25 Hz repetition rate current pulses flowing in the conductive layer. Using this approach we have reproducibly imprinted areas of similar to 2 cm(2) within 16 s with residual layers in the range of few tens of nm. This result paves the way for processes in the sub-1 s timescale over large area surfaces. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.