Microelectronic Engineering 67–68 (2003) 623–628 www.elsevier.com / locate / mee Fluorescence microscopy for quality control in nanoimprint lithography a, b c d b b * Ch. Finder , M. Beck , J. Seekamp , K. Pfeiffer , P. Carlberg , I. Maximov , d b c e b a F. Reuther , E.-L. Sarwe , S. Zankovich , J. Ahopelto , L. Montelius , C. Mayer , c C.M. Sotomayor Torres a Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Duisburg, Lotharstrasse 1, D-47057 Duisburg, Germany b Division of Solid State Physics, Lund University, Box 118, S-22100 Lund, Sweden c Institute of Materials Science and Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Wuppertal, D-42097 Wuppertal, Germany d Microresist Technology GmbH, D-12555 Berlin, Germany e VTT Centre for Microelectronics, P .O. Box 1208, FIN 02044 VTT, Finland Abstract Fluorescence microscopy is introduced as a low cost quality control process for nanoimprint lithography. To depict imprinted structures down to 1 mm lateral size and to detect residues down to 100 nm lateral size, the standard printable polymer mr-I8000 is labelled with less than 0.1 wt.% fluorescent dye. Three different types of stamps are used to determine the dependence of the shape and size of stamp features in a series of imprints. The quality of a stamp is given by the sticking polymer residues per unit area. Fluorescence light images as well as visible light images are analysed. Changes in the area of the stamp covered with polymer as a function of the number of imprints is summarised in a statistical process chart. Adhesion was artificially induced in order to observe self cleaning of virgin stamps. They were detected and monitored, suggesting that this method is a suitable technique for quality control and that it could be easily adapted to the nanoimprint process.  2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Nanoimprint lithography; Fluorescence microscopy; Quality control; Stamp; Polymer 1. Introduction In recent years nanoimprint lithography (NIL) has been developed as a low cost method for the fabrication of nanoscaled patterns. Nanoimprint lithography is a parallel process in which a structured stamp is pressed into a soft or softened polymer layer [1,2]. Due to its projected reliability, throughput *Corresponding author. E-mail address: ch.finder@uni-duisburg.de (C. Finder). 0167-9317 / 03 / $ – see front matter  2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016 / S0167-9317(03)00123-0