A Decade of Step and Flash Imprint Lithography

Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (SFIL) was first reported ten years ago. The technology has advanced in many ways during the last decade. There are sophisticated, imprint tools available from commercial suppliers and high resolution templates can be purchased from several vendors. The materials and the process have evolved and matured to enable printing of sub 10nm structures, inverse tone printing, printing on both sides of disk drive substrates, printing in three dimensions to enable efficient production of CMOS wiring levels and printing of functional materials tailored to enable production of photonic crystals, insulators, etc. While great progress has been made in many areas, there remain concerns among some about defectivity and the throughput of the process.