Fabrication of 70 nm narrow metal nanowire structure on flexible PET film by nanoimprint lithography

As a promising substrate for various kinds of devices, polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) film has many advantages in terms of transparency, flexibility, chemical stability, thermal resistance, mechanical strength and low fabrication cost. In order to build actual device structure on PET substrate, micro to nanometer scale patterns of functional material have to be formed. In this work, 70 nm sized resist patterns with near zero residual layer were made on PET film, using nanoimprint lithography process, based on ‘partial filling effect’. After brief oxygen plasma treatment and e-beam evaporation of functional materials such as Cr metal, resist patterns were lifted-off with acetone solution and 70 nm sized Cr nanowire structure was uniformly formed on flexible PET substrate.