A Consideration of Important Factor on Demolding Force for Various Molds

The demolding forces for various molds are studied for thermal imprint process. Molds are fabricated by anisotropic KOH etching of (110) Si wafer and conventional plasma etching. Although the side wall roughness by the KOH etching is much smaller than that by the plasma etching, the demolding forces for the both molds are similar. The demolding forces for the molds with various cavity depths are measured, and it is found that the demolding force depends on the total side wall area. The demolding force for the mold with line and space pattern is about 50 times as large as that for the mold with no patterns. These results show that the demolding force from the side wall is dominant in the thermal imprint process.