Continuous roll-to-roll nanoimprinting of polymers

Roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography (rrNIL) process, in which a patterned roll is used to transfer features with nanometer resolution, has been proposed. In rrNIL process the parameters that affect the imprinting results are pressure, temperature and imprinting. In the roll-to-roll process the printing speed is typically from a few centimetres per minute up to tens of meters per minute, indicating that the imprint time is very short when compared to planar NIL. High speed rrNIL manufacturing has high potential for future applications exploiting nanoscale features and structures. This has been already demonstrated by transferring 100 nm patterns at speed of 20 m/min. On the other hand, the speed falls well behind the speeds used in today's paper industry. The limitations in NIL processes arise from the time needed to mould the polymer.