On UV-Nanoimprint-Lithography as Direct Patterning Tool for Polymeric Microsystems

This thesis was prepared between July 2007 and August 2011 at the Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems (IHM) of the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) in Dresden. The scope of this work was UV-based nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL). This alternative lithography technique can be applied to replicate polymer structures in a single patterning step with only minimal post-processing steps. The polymer patterns are then directly used as final device structures. The focus of this work was put on photonic waveguides which can be used, e.g., for optical micro-transducers in biosensors. The developed set of basic techniques and the proposed step-and-repeat UV-NIL technique with spin-coated films should contribute to further development in the field of direct polymer patterning by nanoimprinting, to ongoing research at the IHM / IPMS and can be adapted for many other polymeric microsystems.