Thermally assisted nanotransfer printing with sub-20-nm resolution and 8-inch wafer scalability.

Abstract

Nanotransfer printing (nTP) has attracted considerable attention due to its good pattern resolution, process simplicity, and cost-effectiveness. However, the development of a large-area nTP process has been hampered by critical reliability issues related to the uniform replication and regular transfer printing of functional nanomaterials. Here, we present a very practical thermally assisted nanotransfer printing (T-nTP) process that can easily produce well-ordered nanostructures on an 8-inch wafer via the use of a heat-rolling press system that provides both uniform pressure and heat. We also demonstrate various complex pattern geometries, such as wave, square, nut, zigzag, and elliptical nanostructures, on diverse substrates via T-nTP. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to obtain a high-density crossbar metal-insulator-metal memristive array using a combined method of T-nTP and directed self-assembly. We expect that the state-of-the-art T-nTP process presented here combined with other emerging patterning techniques will be especially useful for the large-area nanofabrication of various devices.