Ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography applicable to thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display

We propose a very large-area (> diagonal 20 inch) ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) process as a breakthrough strategy for the thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry. The large-area UV-NIL process is a promising alternative to expensive conventional optical lithography for the production of TFT-LCD panels. In this study a UV-NIL process using a large area hard stamp in a low vacuum environment is presented. The hard stamp made from quartz is used for achieving a high overlay accuracy and the vacuum environment is employed to ensure that air bubble defects are not formed during imprinting. It is demonstrated that the quartz stamp can be used for imprinting diagonal 20-in. substrates via single-step UV-NIL in a low vacuum environment. Experimental results demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach as a low-cost lithographic process applicable to flat panel displays.