Dimension Change during Multi-step Imprint Process and In-plain Compression

Abstract

In nature, there are living organisms that have functional properties with a special surface structure. The research has been widely conducted to apply the same functional properties by engineering the above structure. In this study, we focused on the hierarchical structure with high aspect ratio found in lotus leaves and Morpho butterfly scales. We chose Nano imprint lithography (NIL) as a method for fabricating the structures because of its advantages such as low cost and high accuracy. However, the conventional NIL only enables to transfer patterns perpendicular to work surface due to the necessity of mold release, so that we cannot obtain a hierarchical structure by NIL. Therefore, as a new process, we tried to form a hierarchical pattern by multi-step imprinting and to increase the aspect ratio by an in-plane compression method. In this paper, we quantitatively evaluated the interface pattern of each hierarchy.