Novel 3-D device fabrication process in micro-electronic mechanical system based on nano-imprint lithography

Based on the nanoimprint lithography (NIL) combining with layered manufacture principle, a novel three-dimensional micro-electronic mechanical system (MEMS) fabrication process is investigated. To accurately align the individual layers, an optical alignment system with video image principle is developed to improve the alignment accuracy to 2 μm. The photoresist with high resolution is made by reducing the viscosity and the solidification contraction ratio when the elasticity and solidification velocity are taken into account. Experiments are performed to optimize the process parameters of resist-coating, imprinting and template-separation, and the atomic force microscope (AFM) images of imprinting results show that the pattern replication error from mold to photoresist is less than 8%, which enables to manufacture complicated microstructures with higher efficiency and lower cost for MEMS device fabrication.