Low Volume Shrinkage Alkaline Degradable UV Nanoimprint Lithography Resists Based on Acrylic Anhydride

The shrinkage phenomenon of UV-NIL resist during photocuring is still regarded as an important problem hindering the wide application of UV-NIL technology. We designed four degradable UV-NIL resists with low volume shrinkage rate based on acrylic anhydride. Acrylate provided quickly UV curing ability and the resists were completely cured under 365 nm UV light for 10 seconds. The anhydride group provided degradation ability, causing the cured resists completely dissolved in alkaline developer. Introducing rings in the molecular structure could compensate for volume shrinkage by ring-opening, and the volume shrinkage rate of resists was below 4%. The cured resists showed good thermal stability with decomposition temperature higher than 150 ℃. The UV-NIL resists demonstrated good pattern replication ability and distinct patterns with 100 nm resolution were obtained. The prepared UV-NIL resists were expected to play a role in the manufacturing of semiconductors, solar cells, displays, sensors, and other devices in the future.