Microelectronic Engineering 61–62 (2002) 371–377 www.elsevier.com / locate / mee Room-temperature and low-pressure nanoimprint lithography a a, a a a a a * ´ A. Lebib , Y. Chen , E. Cambril , P. Youinou ,V. Studer , M. Natali , A. Pepin , b b H.M. Janssen , R.P. Sijbesma a Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures ( LPN), CNRS, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France b Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Chemistry Eindhoven University of Technology, P .O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands Abstract We demonstrate that room-temperature and low-pressure nanoimprint lithography techniques can be achieved by using Hybrane HS2550, a semi-crystalline hyperbranched resist polymer with a glass transition temperature below and a melting point above room temperature. Nanoimprint lithography at room temperature is possible with sub-100 nm resolution, as 75 nm line-and-spacing gratings were successfully fabricated with a tri-layer process and a metal lift-off. The melt viscosity of Hybrane HS2550 decreases drastically with temperature allowing nanoimprint experiments at low pressures, while maintaining imprint temperatures that are much lower than commonly required in nanoimprint technology.  2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Nanofabrication; Nanoimprint lithography; Polymers 1. Introduction Nanoimprint lithography is known to be a replication technique of low-cost and high resolution [1]. Various imprinting processes and applications have been developed to demonstrate its extensibility and application capabilities [2]. Most of the previous investigations have been carried out using imprinting conditions that involve relatively high temperatures and pressures, and little attention has been paid to the possibility of room-temperature [3] and low-pressure imprinting, even though the development of such mild nanoimprint conditions is important for specific applications. For example, the magnetic properties of ultra-thin Co–Pt multi-layers are stable only below a certain temperature, while semiconductor substrates such as InP are quite fragile under uniaxial stress. In a general sense, low temperature and low pressure imprinting will also facilitate a number of technical implementa- tions that relate to imprinting device design and step-and-repeat processes. In this work we investigate a room-temperature imprint process for high resolution patterning; we *Corresponding author. Tel.: 1 33-1-6963-6121; fax: 1 33-1-6963-6006. E-mail address: yong.chen@lpn.cnrs.fr (Y. Chen). 0167-9317 / 02 / $ – see front matter  2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0167-9317(02)00485-9