Soft lithography

 

Replica moulding of sub-100 nm features, such as those produced by self-assembling of BCs is the main subject of a research focused on the development of scalable nanotechnology methods for the fabrication of optical and optoelectronic devices through a cost-effective procedures.

 

Different elastomeric micro and nanostructures based on a UV-curable multifunctional urethane methacrylate perfluoropolyether could be generated either by UV-lithography from integrated microlenses or replica molding of different optical components, such as diffraction gratings, waveguides and photonic crystals.

 

The fine-tuning of such fast replication methodology without applying pressure or thermal treatments is actually in progress, aiming to demonstrate the efficiency of this polymer to reproduce not only micro and over 100 nm features with large aspect ratios, but also smaller features down to less than 10 nm.