Overlay Accuracy Limitations of Soft Stamp UV Nanoimprint Lithography and Circumvention Strategies for Device Applications

In this work multilevel pattering capabilities of Substrate Conformal Imprint Lithography (SCIL) have been explored. A mix & match approach combining the high throughput of nanoimprint lithography with the excellent overlay accuracy of electron beam lithography (EBL) has been exploited to fabricate nanoscale devices. An EBL system has also been utilized as a benchmarking tool to measure both stamp distortions and alignment precision of this mix & match approach. By aligning the EBL system to 20 mm x 20 mm and 8 mm x 8 mm cells to compensate pattern distortions of order of $3 \mu m$ over 6 inch wafer area, overlay accuracy better than $1.2 \mu m$ has been demonstrated. This result can partially be attributed to the flexible SCIL stamp which compensates deformations caused by the presence of particles which would otherwise significantly reduce the alignment precision

A method to quantify FRET stoichiometry with phasor plot analysis and acceptor lifetime ingrowth.

FRET is widely used for the study of protein-protein interactions in biological samples. However, it is difficult to quantify both the FRET efficiency (E) and the affinity (Kd) of the molecular interaction from intermolecular FRET signals in samples of unknown stoichiometry. Here, we present a method for the simultaneous quantification of the complete set of interaction parameters, including fractions of bound donors and acceptors, local protein concentrations, and dissociation constants, in each image pixel. The method makes use of fluorescence lifetime information from both donor and acceptor molecules and takes advantage of the linear properties of the phasor plot approach. We demonstrate the capability of our method in vitro in a microfluidic device and also in cells, via the determination of the binding affinity between tagged versions of glutathione and glutathione S-transferase, and via the determination of competitor concentration. The potential of the method is explored with simulations.This work was funded by grants from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Alzheimer Research UK Trust, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. W.Y.C. is funded by a China Scholarship Council-Cambridge Scholarship. D.R. is a Principal Research Fellow of the Wellcome Trust.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006349515000752#

New Organic Photo-Curable Nanoimprint Resist ≪mr-NIL210≫ for High Volume Fabrication Applying Soft PDMS-Based Stamps

Herein, we report on a newly developed and commercialized organic photo-curable Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) resist, namely mr-NIL210. Since this new NIL resist follows an innovative design concept and contains solely specific monomers with a characteristic chemistry and molecular design, an extended longevity of applied polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) stamps is enabled addressing a crucial key metric for industrial high-volume manufacturing processes. Moreover, the mr-NIL210 is characterized by a negligible oxygen sensitivity of the curing chemistry, outstanding film forming and adhesion performances as well as excellent plasma-based dry etch characteristics for various substrate materials like silicon, aluminum, sapphire, titanium, etc