Nanoimprint Lithography Based Nanoelectromechanical Device Fabrication

Sammanfattning: This thesis presents studies concerning the development of nanoimprint lithography technology, nanoimprint lithography-based nanofabrication, as well as the production of NEMS devices and their characterization. It can be divided into the following parts: The first part introduces different NIL stamp fabricating methods and processes. The top-down fabricating methods, such as E-beam lithography and scanning probe lithography, and the bottom-up fabricating techniques, such as epitaxial growth and molecular imprints are described. These approaches have been used to produce various stamps, e.g., transparent stamps, high aspect ratio stamps, stamps with atomically flat side-walls, stamps with extremely high resolution, and molecular stamps, just to mention a few. The second part discusses various NIL processes and related considerations. Here, thermal and UV NIL processes are introduced for different purposes, such as pattern transfer and the construction of high aspect ratio structures. The considerations include stamp cleaning and the control of imprinting defects. The final part involves NEMS device fabrication and characterization. The fabrication of two NEMS devices, based on cantilever arrays and high aspect ratio polymer structures, is presented, and the characterization of the mechanical and optical properties of cantilever arrays based the NEMS device is described. The devices may be employed in applications such as optical valves, accelerometers and mass sensors, whereas the high aspect ratio NEMS devices can be utilized as disposable mass sensors for truly daily use due to their low cost and high throughput.