Analysis of Dynamic Pressure Distribution on the Mold in Compressional Gas Cushion Press Nanoimprint Lithography

Air cushion press (ACP) is one of the significant approaches to improve the uniformity of pressure distribution. It is important to point out that the pressing method through piston compressing gas proposed in this paper is the further development of air cushion press (ACP) in nanoimprint lithography (NIL). In this novel method, a servomotor drives a piston to compress gas in the closed chamber. The increasing gas pressure can be distributed on the mold and substrate uniformly. The dynamic pressing processes of both air inflation via jet nozzles and compressing gas through piston have been simulated and analyzed by using the FEM software Comsol Multiphysics with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The analysis of the results of the CFD simulation shows that the distribution of pressure on the patterned mold is more uniform during the gas-compressing process, which is favorable for transferring the feature patterns on the mold with high fidelity and prolonging the life of mold due to the reduction of the mold loss.