Advanced surface engineering
- Reference number
- SM16-0024
- Start and end dates
- 170101-181231
- Amount granted
- 1 110 557 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Lund University
- Research area
- Materials Science and Technology
Summary
Nanotechnology is vital for creating functional surfaces for a large variety of applications. As a powerful nanofabrication tool, nanoimprint lithography (NIL) can produce well-defined structures from different polymer building blocks, and provides valuable products for advanced industrial and research applications, for example for green lighting, high capacity storage, high resolution display, sensors and lab-on-a-chip devices. The main objectives of this project is to investigate new polymer building blocks that can be applied in NIL for faster and more reliable nanofabrication of different functional surfaces. The research will be carried out in Obducat Technologies during a 2-year period, in which Lei Ye (from Lund University) will spend 12-month equivalent time in the industrial sector. In this project the chemical synthesis and characterization will be carried out in the department of chemistry of Lund University, and the NIL experiments and nanofabrication and inspection will be performed in Obducat Technologies. New IPRs of polymer building blocks, new biocompatible devices and sensors are expected to be the outcome of this project. The industrial experience will also inspire new research directions and collaboration with industry, and will be invaluable for strengthening the scientific competence of the visiting researcher and his group.
Popular science description
The main goals of this project is to develop new polymer building blocks that can be used for advanced surface engineering using nanoimprint lithography. The new polymer building blocks will allow faster nanoimprinting process to be achieved with higher re-producibility, and will help to open new product opportunities in the bio-application area. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a novel nanofabrication technique that generates high resolution micro- and nano-scale structures with a high throughput and low cost. For a successful NIL processing, one key component is the polymer building block that is used either as a polymer resist for final patterning, or as a precursor to produce the Intermediate Polymer Stamp (IPS) for mass production of nanopatterned surfaces. The IPS technique was patented by Obducat Technologies and has contributed to reduce the cost of NIL significantly. Until today, the polymer building blocks used in NIL have come from the resist materials used in traditional semiconductor industry, and often times the physical/chemical properties are not optimal for NIL purpose. In particular, NIL requires that the polymer building block have minimal volume variation over a large temperature range to ensure faithful pattern transfer, and well controlled chemical functionality to allow easy stamp-releasing. Besides these requirements, it is also highly desirable to develop a variety of new "functional" polymer building blocks or surface engineering methods, which in combination can produce nanostructured surfaces for biomedical and life science applications.