Faithful replication of grating patterns in polymer through electrohydrodynamic instabilities

H. Li*, W. Yu, T. Wang, H. Zhang, Y. Cao, E. Abraham, Marc Phillipe Yves Desmulliez

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic instability patterning (EHDIP) as an alternative patterning method has attracted a great deal of attention over the past decade. This article demonstrates the faithful transfer of patterns with a high aspect ratio onto a polymer film via electrohydrodynamic instabilities for a given patterned grating mask. We perform a simple mathematical analysis to determine the influence of process parameters on the pressure difference Delta P. Through numerical simulation, it is demonstrated that thick films subject to large electric fields are essential to realize this faithful replication. In particular, the influence of the material properties of the polymer on pattern replication is discussed in detail. It is found that, to achieve the smaller periodic patterns with a higher resolution, film with a larger value of the dielectric constant and smaller value of the surface tension should be chosen. In addition, an ideal replication of the mask pattern with a short evolution time is possible by reducing the viscosity of the polymer liquid. Finally, the experiments of the pattern replication with and without defects are demonstrated to compare with the numerical simulation results. It is found that experiments are in good agreement with the simulation results and prove that the numerical simulation method provides an effective way to predict faithful replication.

Original languageEnglish
Article number075006
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Volume24
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2014

Keywords

  • faithful replication
  • electrohydrodynamic instabilities
  • grating patterns
  • LINEAR-STABILITY ANALYSIS
  • LEAKY DIELECTRIC FILMS
  • THIN LIQUID-FILMS
  • ELECTRIC-FIELD
  • INTERFACE INSTABILITY
  • MICROSTRUCTURES
  • SIMULATION
  • ARRAYS

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