Nanoimprint Lithography and its Predicted Liftoff

Nanoimprint lithography has been gaining attention in very recent years, but the market hasn't really seen anything yet. Nothing like what's expected by 2010, when the market for nanopatterning tools, templates, resists and other consumables is expected to rise to $292.74M, according to a recent report from Business Communications Co. Inc. (BCC, Norwalk, Conn.).

For its report, "RGB-338 Nanopatterning," BCC defined nanopatterning in relatively narrow terms to avoid reference to photolithography, which does technically pattern at the "nano" level. Instead, the report focuses on a definition of nanopatterning that "encompasses only nanolithography techniques that do not use light or radiation to expose resist layers, but physically imprint or build up nanoscale patterns on a silicon chip or other substrate."

With this definition in mind, the global nanopatterning market is expected to see an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 44.6% over the next five years (Figure ). Nanoimprint technologies account for the lion's share of the market (74%), and that is only expected to grow — reaching 84% of the market by 2010. Scanning probe lithography is the other significant portion of the market, with almost 26% in 2005. Although scanning probe lithography will continue to grow, its share of the nanopatterning market will fall to 15% by 2010.

The nanopatterning market is expected to grow from $46.26M in 2005 to $292.74M in 2010, with an AAGR of 44.6%. (Source: BCC Inc.)

According to the report, semiconductor and other microelectronics production is the largest application, at ~35% of the market. That's expected to grow to 46% in 2010. Other important applications include nanosensors, microfluidics and nano-optics/optoelectronics.

Of course, none of this touches the time that nanoimprint lithography could really hit its stride. If it can become the success that some are predicting and gain adoption for mainstream semiconductor manufacturing at the 32 nm node, then its real success will come after 2010. At this point, the 32 nm node is expected to be reached in 2013, according to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Assuming UV-NIL (the nanoimprint technique considered applicable to mainstream chipmaking) becomes a commercial success, sales of UV-NIL tools, templates and resists could exceed $1.3B by 2015, according to BCC's report.

On that front, the nanoimprint lithography community has been making news lately with some significant sales, technical advances and other developments. For example, EV Group (Schärding, Austria) announced recently the placement of nanoimprint tools at two locations. It has sold an EVG570 high-volume hot embossing system to NIL Fab Inc. (Boucherville, Canada), a contract manufacturer that will offer prototyping services and low-volume production for biosensors, lab-on-a-chip devices, optics and photonics, magnetic storage, OLEDs and other applications that use low-cost NIL processes and materials. EV Group has also installed an EVG640NIL precision alignment system tooled for nanoimprint lithography at Heptagon (Rüschlikon, Switzerland) for the fabrication and replication of micro-optic devices.

Molecular Imprints Inc. (MII, Austin, Texas), another leading NIL toolmaker, recently raised $17M in the first closing of a planned $25M Series C funding. This brings MII to more than $60M in funding. Investors in the latest round included Dai Nippon Printing Co. (DNP), Alloy Ventures, Motorola Ventures, Harris & Harris, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Hakuto Co. Ltd., and Asset Management Partners. Since then, president and CEO Norman Schumaker has retired from the company, appointing Mark Melliar-Smith CEO. Melliar-Smith, who joined MII in 2004 as COO, previously served as president and CEO of International SEMATECH, and CTO of Lucent Technologies Microelectronics (now Agere Systems).

Researchers working under the European Commission's Information Society Technologies research initiative announced recently that they have a commercially available, first-generation UV nanoimprint lithography tool. Dubbed Soft UV Enhanced Nanoimprint (SOUVENIR), the technology combines UV nanoimprint and soft lithography. It uses flexible multilayer soft stamps, and works at room temperature and low imprint pressure (<1 bar). "In principle, this new technique has the potential to be used for mass manufacture by the semiconductor industry. One approach we use can already form patterns down to the 10 nm scale," said Markus Bender, coordinator of the SOUVENIR project, in a statement.

Find more information on lithography.