Materials for step and flash imprint lithography (S-FIL^®)

Step and flash imprint lithography, or S-FIL^®, was introduced in 1999 by The University of Texas at Austin (Proc. SPIE-Int. Soc. Opt. Eng., 1999, 3676, 379), and has progressed from an academic curiosity to commercialization in less than five years (J. Microlithogr., Microfabr., Microsyst., 2005, 4, 1). It has proven to be a cost effective, high resolution alternative to traditional optical lithography and has been placed on The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) as a potential candidate for 32 nm device fabrication (http://www.itrs.net/Links/2006Update/FinalToPost/08_Lithography2006Update.pdf.). This article summarizes the efforts made towards the development of imprint materials for S-FIL and the obstacles that have yet to be overcome.