JP2012213889A - Imprint device and demolding method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily remove a mold from a material to be molded by remarkably reducing mold release resistance without using a releasing agent.SOLUTION: In an imprint device 1 for molding the material to be molded by transferring a desired pattern formed on the mold 30 to the material to be molded, the pressure in a space including at least the mold 30 and the material to be molded is controlled. Concretely, in demolding for removing the mold 30 from the material to be molded, the pressure in the space including the mold 30 and the material to be molded is reduced so as to be close to the pressure between the mold 30 and the material to be molded.

Description

  The present invention relates to an imprint apparatus and a mold release method.

  In recent years, the conventional magnetic recording medium cannot cope with the increasing demand for higher density of information recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk such as a hard disk. In order to cope with such high density recording information, a magnetic recording medium called a patterned medium has been devised. This patterned medium is a recording medium in which a recording area is magnetically or physically isolated, and an improvement in recording density is expected.

  This patterned media can be duplicated and mass-produced using an imprint apparatus using an imprint technique for transferring a desired pattern formed on a mold to a molding material. In particular, in the case of patterned media, an imprint apparatus that uses nanoimprint technology that supports nanometer order transfer is used.

  This imprint technique is roughly divided into two types, thermal imprint and optical imprint.

  Thermal imprinting is a method in which a mold on which a fine uneven pattern is formed is pressed against a thermoplastic resin as a molding material while being heated, and then the molding material is cooled and released to transfer the fine pattern.

  Optical imprinting is a process in which a mold with a fine uneven pattern is pressed against a photocurable resin, which is a molding material, and irradiated with ultraviolet light to cure, and then the molding material is released to form a fine pattern. It is a method of transcription.

  In mass production in an imprint apparatus, a master mold as a master mold is used, but in reality, this master mold is called a plurality of working replicas duplicated by transferring the master mold to a molding material. A copy mold will be used for each mass production line. In other words, the copy mold is used as an alternative mold for the master mold, which is the original mold, and therefore molding with extremely high accuracy is required.

  However, when a mold release process is performed to release the mold from the cured molded object after transferring the fine uneven pattern of the mold to the material to be molded, a certain degree of high release force is required for the mold release. For this reason, defects may occur in the concavo-convex pattern formed by transfer molding, or the mold release may not be successful, causing various problems. In particular, in the nanoimprint technology corresponding to nanometer order transfer, there is a high possibility that such a problem becomes remarkable.

  In addition, if a problem occurs in such a mold release process, it may cause a decrease in throughput, which increases the cost and eventually becomes a barrier to mass production. Therefore, the mold release process is very important in imprinting. Is one of the most important processes.

  Therefore, for example, in Patent Document 1, a mold release agent is formed on a template on which a transfer pattern is formed, thereby facilitating release after the transfer pattern is transferred to a coating film formed on a substrate. Is disclosed.

  In addition, a technique for facilitating mold release by reducing the degree of adhesion between the mold and the workpiece to which the transfer pattern is transferred by physically deforming the mold or the substrate is also known. For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a mechanism that facilitates peeling between a mold and a resin by bending the substrate.

JP2011-5696A JP 2007-83626 A

  However, in the mold release process in which the mold is released from the cured molded product after transferring the concave / convex pattern of the mold to the molding material as described above, for example, the mold release disclosed in Patent Document 1 is performed. When a mold is used, the mold release agent always has a physical film thickness, so this film thickness cannot be ignored in the technical fields that handle ultra-fine patterns such as next-generation semiconductors and patterned media. Therefore, there is a problem that size restrictions are imposed on the transfer pattern.

  For example, when mold release is performed by physically deforming a mold or a substrate, such as bending the substrate as disclosed in Patent Document 2, the transfer pattern becomes finer as the transfer pattern becomes finer. There is a high possibility that adverse effects such as collapse will occur. Specifically, there is a possibility that it will be extremely difficult to cope with the ultra-fine transfer pattern, which is a future technical development direction, and the large area of the transfer pattern that performs transfer with high efficiency.

  In particular, when the transfer pattern is enlarged in a large area, the required release force becomes very high, which causes various problems such as transfer pattern deterioration, throughput reduction, and direct damage to the imprint apparatus. There is a problem such as.

  Therefore, the present invention has been devised to solve the above-mentioned problems, and without using a mold release agent, the mold release force can be greatly reduced, and the mold can be easily released from the molding object. It is an object of the present invention to provide an implement device and a mold release method.

The first aspect of the present invention is:
In an imprint apparatus for molding a molding by transferring a desired pattern formed on a mold to a molding material,
Pressure adjusting means for adjusting a pressure in a space including at least the mold and the molding; and
At the time of releasing the mold from the molding object, the pressure in the space including the mold and the molding object is reduced by the pressure adjusting means so as to approach the pressure between the mold and the molding object. An imprint apparatus comprising: a control unit.

The second aspect of the present invention is:
The imprint apparatus is stored in a sealed chamber,
The control means controls the pressure in the chamber to be reduced by the pressure adjusting means so as to approach the pressure between the mold and the molding object when releasing the mold from the molding object. The imprint apparatus according to the first aspect.

The third aspect of the present invention is:
In a mold release method of an imprint apparatus for molding a molding by transferring a desired pattern formed on a mold to a molding material,
A pressure adjusting step for adjusting a pressure in a space including at least the mold and the molding; and
When releasing the mold from the molding object, the pressure in the space including the mold and the molding object is reduced by the pressure adjusting step so as to approach the pressure between the mold and the molding object. A mold release method characterized by comprising a control step.

The fourth aspect of the present invention is:
The imprint apparatus is stored in a sealed chamber,
In the control step, the pressure in the chamber is reduced by the pressure adjustment step so that the pressure in the chamber approaches the pressure between the mold and the molding object when releasing the mold from the molding object. The mold release method according to the third aspect.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily release the mold from the molding object by significantly reducing the release force without using a release agent.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is the figure shown about schematic structure of the imprint apparatus shown as embodiment of this invention, (a) is before transfer, (b) is during transfer, (c) is the figure which showed the mode at the time of mold release It is. It is the figure which showed the result of having measured the maximum mold release force applied when releasing a mold from the resist layer which is a molded object It is the figure which showed the result of having measured the maximum mold release force at the time of performing the mold release process by making the pressure of the imprint atmosphere reduce from the state which reduced pressure to atmospheric pressure.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the present embodiment, an imprint apparatus and a mold release method using the imprint apparatus will be described in the following order.

1. 1. Pressure between mold and workpiece 2. Configuration of imprint apparatus 3. Example of operation of imprint apparatus 4. Effects of the present embodiment Modified example

<1. Pressure between mold and workpiece>
As a result of earnest study, the inventor of the present application, in the imprint apparatus, between the mold and the molding object after transferring the fine uneven pattern of the mold to the molding material, under the environment where imprinting is performed The knowledge that it was in the pressure reduction state which is a pressure (negative pressure) lower than in a certain imprint atmosphere was acquired. Specifically, it is considered that the pressure between the mold before mold release and the molded object is lower than that in the imprint atmosphere by pressing the mold on the material to be molded and pressurizing and curing the mold. .

  Therefore, after transferring the concave / convex pattern of the mold to the molding material, before the mold is released from the molding material, the mold and the molding material are subjected to pressure in the imprint atmosphere (for example, imprinting in atmospheric pressure). The pressure is applied in the direction opposite to the direction of mold release in the mold release process by the difference in pressure between the mold and the workpiece. .

  In other words, in addition to the generally considered adsorption force acting between the mold and the molded object, the mold release force required when pulling the mold away from the molded object due to such a pressure difference Will be higher.

  Therefore, if the pressure in the imprint atmosphere is reduced so as to eliminate this pressure difference, and the pressure is close to the pressure between the mold and the workpiece, the mold and mold have been released until now. Since the pressure in the direction opposite to the direction to be reduced is reduced, the release force required in the release process can be greatly reduced.

<2. Configuration of imprint apparatus>
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an example of a schematic configuration of an imprint apparatus 1 capable of mass-producing a desired pattern formed on a mold by transferring it to a molding material. FIGS. 1A to 1C are diagrams showing the desired pattern formed on the mold before transfer, during transfer, and at the time of mold release when transferring a desired pattern to the molding material. In FIG. 1, the three axes of the orthogonal coordinate system are X, Y, and Z, the plane formed of the XY directions is the horizontal plane, and the Z direction is the vertical direction. In particular, with respect to the Z direction, the direction of the arrow is represented as “up” and the opposite direction is represented as “down”.

  This imprint apparatus 1 can be used in a mass production line that mass-produces a copy mold called a working replica from a master mold, and can be used in a mass production line that mass-produces patterned media from a master mold or a copy mold. It can be applied to both optical imprints.

  In the following, a case where a copy mold is manufactured from a master mold by optical imprinting will be described for the sake of explanation.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the imprint apparatus 1 is roughly classified into an imprint execution unit 2 that actually executes imprint, an operation controller 3 that comprehensively controls the imprint execution unit 2, and a vacuum pump 4. And.

(About chamber 10)
The imprint execution unit 2 is accommodated in the chamber 10 so as to be able to maintain a sealed state when executing imprint.

  An opening 10 a for connecting the vacuum pump 4 is formed in the chamber 10. The chamber 10 and the vacuum pump 4 are connected to each other via an opening 10a of the chamber 10 and a vacuum flange 7 having a sealing function for keeping a sealed state. As a result, when imprinting is performed by the imprinting apparatus 1, particularly in the mold release process, it is possible to execute a decompression process for reducing the pressure in the chamber 10 to a vacuum state by the vacuum pump 4. The operation of the vacuum pump 4 is controlled by the operation controller 3.

  In addition, the chamber 10 is connected to a pipe 9 having an opening 10b and provided with a valve 8 that can be opened and closed and having a sealing function to maintain a sealed state. The valve 8 can be opened and closed manually, but may be automatically opened and closed under the control of the operation controller 3 by applying a known technique and combining a drive source such as a motor.

  The valve 8 is controlled so as to be closed when performing a pressure reduction process for reducing the pressure in the chamber 10 to a vacuum state by the vacuum pump 4. Further, the valve 8 is controlled so as to open when the pressure in the chamber 10 reduced to the vacuum state is returned from the vacuum state to, for example, the atmospheric pressure state.

(About imprint execution unit 2)
First, the configuration of the imprint execution unit 2 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1A, the imprint execution unit 2 includes a mold holding unit 11 that holds a mold 30 on which a desired fine uneven pattern is formed.

  The mold 30 is made of, for example, quartz or the like, and a fine concavo-convex pattern is formed by emitting light emitted from a light source guided to a light guide that is arranged so as to penetrate through the mold holding unit 11 (not shown). It is possible to irradiate the resist, which is a photocurable resin described later, from above through the entire region.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the imprint execution unit 2 has a substrate placement unit 23 for placing a substrate 21 serving as a copy mold substrate stably and flatly. The substrate mounting portion 23 can freely replace the substrate 21, and is applied with a resist 22 for optical imprinting to press and release the mold 30 when forming a resist layer to which a fine uneven pattern is transferred. It is provided so as not to cause a positional shift with respect to a process such as a mold. The copy mold can be mass-produced by repeating the steps of placing the substrate 21 on the substrate placing portion 23 and executing imprinting.

  Examples of the resist for photoimprinting include a photocurable resin, particularly an ultraviolet curable resin. Such a photocurable resin is cured by irradiating light including an ultraviolet wavelength region for a predetermined time or longer.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, a beam 15 is formed in the chamber 10. The beam 15 is formed with an opening for inserting and holding the mold holding portion 11 so as to be suspended. The beam 15 is provided with a mold up / down drive unit 50, and the mold holding unit 11 can be driven up and down freely by meshing with a mold up / down mechanism 51 formed in the mold holding unit 11.

  For example, the mold up-and-down mechanism 51 and the mold up-and-down drive unit 50 are mechanisms that are generally called rack and pinion. Specifically, the mold vertical drive unit 50 has a mechanism for rotating a small-diameter circular gear called a pinion by the rotational force of the motor. On the other hand, the mold up-and-down mechanism 51 includes a rack cut into a flat bar. Thus, when a rotational force is applied to the pinion, the rack moves in a linear direction (in this case, up and down direction) to the end where the rack has been cut.

  In addition to the rack and pinion described above, the mechanism for driving the mold holding unit 11 to move up and down includes a mechanism that converts rotational power such as a mechanism using a worm gear, a cam mechanism, a link mechanism, etc. into a linear reciprocating motion, Alternatively, a linear motion mechanism using an actuator such as air pressure may be applied.

  By having such a drive mechanism, as will be described later, the mold holding unit 11 presses the mold 30 against the resist 22 applied to the substrate 21 mounted on the substrate mounting unit 23 to form a fine uneven pattern. Can be transferred or released from the formed resist layer by curing the concavo-convex pattern during transfer.

  Next, the mold holding part 11 will be described with reference to FIG. The mold holding unit 11 includes a mold holder 31 that is directly attached and held so that the pattern forming surface of the mold 30 faces the substrate 21 side, and a holder holding unit 32 that holds the mold holder 31. As shown in FIG. 1A, the holder holding portion 32 is provided with the mold up-and-down mechanism 51 described above.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the holder holding part 32 is configured to engage with the mold holder 31 in a space formed in the holder holding part 32. Thus, by controlling the mold vertical drive unit 50 to be rotationally driven, the holder holding unit 32 having the mold vertical mechanism 51 is driven up and down freely, and the mold holder 31 that engages with the holder holding unit 32, and thus The mold 30 attached to the mold holder 31 can be moved up and down freely.

  The engaging portion between the holder holding portion 32 and the mold holder 31 is transmitted with an equal force so that the pattern forming surface of the mold 30 attached to the mold holder 31 is kept parallel without being inclined even after the transfer. It is configured.

(About the motion controller 3)
As described above, the operation controller 3 is a control unit in the imprint apparatus 1, and comprehensively controls the imprint execution unit 2, the vacuum pump 4, the valve 8, and the like.

  The operation controller 3 performs operation control of the vacuum pump 4 connected to the chamber 10 via the vacuum flange 7 and opening / closing control of the valve 8 connected to the chamber 10 via the pipe 9 in the mold release process. Specifically, the operation controller 3 controls the valve 8 to be closed in the mold release process by the imprint execution unit 2 and controls the vacuum pump 4 to reduce the imprint atmosphere. Thereby, mold release is performed in a state where the mold release force for separating the mold from the molding object is greatly reduced.

  Further, the operation controller 3 returns the imprint atmosphere to, for example, an atmospheric pressure state by controlling the valve 8 to be in an open state after the mold release is completed.

<3. Example of operation of imprint apparatus>
Subsequently, with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C, the operation of the imprint execution unit 2 when the mold 30 on which a desired fine uneven pattern is formed is transferred to the resist 22 to form a copy mold. Explain. The operation by the imprint execution unit 2 is controlled by the operation controller 3.

  First, by controlling the valve 8 to an open state, the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 is set to an atmospheric pressure state, for example. The imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 does not necessarily need to be in an atmospheric pressure state, and may be in a state higher than the pressure between the mold and the object to be molded before releasing. In the following, for the sake of explanation, the imprint atmosphere is assumed to be an atmospheric pressure state.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 1A, the substrate 21 is placed on the substrate platform 23, and a resist 22 is applied to the upper surface of the substrate 21.

  Subsequently, by driving and controlling the mold vertical drive unit 50, the holder holding unit 32 is moved downward by the mold vertical mechanism 51. At the same time, the mold holder 31 engaged with the holder holding portion 32 and the mold 30 attached to and held by the mold holder 31 also move downward.

  As a result, as shown in FIG. 1B, the mold 30 is pressed against the resist 22 applied to the upper surface of the substrate 21, so that the fine concavo-convex pattern formed on the mold 30 is transferred.

  At this time, the upper surfaces 301 a and 301 b of the mold holder 31 to which the mold 30 is attached are pressed downward by the lower surfaces 302 a and 302 b of the holder holding part 32.

  The mold holding unit 11 of the imprint execution unit 2 includes, for example, a load cell that is a converter that converts a magnitude of a force using a strain gauge into an electric signal (not shown) in order to detect a force applied to the mold 30. Yes. A value detected by a load cell (not shown) is always transmitted to the operation controller 3 during imprint execution, for example, at a predetermined time interval. The operation controller 3 controls to stop the operation of the mold vertical drive unit 50 when the force applied when the mold 30 detected by the load cell is pressed against the resist 22 becomes a predetermined force. The pressed state against the resist 22 is maintained.

  The imprint execution unit 2 of the imprint apparatus 1 that performs optical imprinting, while maintaining this state, applies light including a wavelength region for curing the resist 22 to the resist 22, for example, ultraviolet rays (not shown) for a predetermined time. The resist layer is formed by curing the resist 22 by irradiation.

  As shown in FIG. 1C, when the resist layer 22A, which is a molding object, is formed by curing the resist, the process proceeds to a mold release process. First, in the mold release process, the valve 8 is closed and the chamber 10 is sealed under the control of the operation controller 3.

  Next, the operation controller 3 controls the vacuum pump 4 so as to depressurize the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10. Specifically, the operation controller 3 controls the vacuum pump 4 to reduce the pressure so that the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 approaches the pressure between the mold 30 and the resist layer 22 </ b> A that is the molding target. As a result, the release force, which is the force for pulling the mold away from the resist layer 22A, which is the object to be molded, is greatly reduced.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 1C, the operation controller 3 drives and controls the mold up / down driving unit 50 so as to separate the mold 30 from the resist layer 22A, and moves the mold holding unit 11 in the upward direction. 30 and the resist layer 22A, which is a molding object, are released.

  The operation controller 3 releases the mold 30 and the resist layer 22 </ b> A that is the object to be molded, and then stops the operation of the vacuum pump 4 and controls the valve 8 to be opened, thereby controlling the imprint in the chamber 10. Return the atmosphere to atmospheric pressure.

  It should be noted that the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 is higher than the pressure between the mold 30 and the resist layer 22A, which is a molding object, so that the mold can be released by reduced pressure in the next imprint release process. Well, it is not always necessary to have an atmospheric pressure state. Therefore, the valve 8 may be controlled to be closed before the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 is in the atmospheric pressure state.

  By executing the operation described with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1C, the imprint execution unit 2 of the imprint apparatus 1 generates a desired fine uneven pattern formed on the mold 30. A resist layer 22 </ b> A that is a molding target can be formed on the substrate 21 by being transferred to the resist 22 that is a molding target material and cured.

<4. Effects of the present embodiment>
According to the imprint apparatus 1 described in the present embodiment and the mold release method for separating the mold from the molding object executed by the imprint apparatus 1, the following effects can be obtained.

  According to the present embodiment, in the imprint release process executed by the imprint execution unit 2 of the imprint apparatus 1, the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 in which the imprint execution unit 2 is stored is changed between the mold 30 and the object to be covered. The vacuum pump 4 is used to reduce the pressure so as to approach the pressure between the resist layer 22A, which is a molded product.

  The inventor of the present application has found that the pressure between the mold 30 before mold release and the resist layer 22 </ b> A, which is a molding object, is lower than that in the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10, based on the findings found by the inventors. It is thought that there is.

  That is, the mold 30 and the resist layer 22 </ b> A that is the object to be molded are under pressure opposite to the mold release direction due to a pressure difference with the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10.

  Therefore, if the pressure in the imprint atmosphere is reduced so as to eliminate this pressure difference, and the pressure is close to the pressure between the mold 30 and the resist layer 22A as the molding object, the mold 30 and the molding object will be used so far. Since the pressure in the direction opposite to the direction in which the mold has been released also decreases, the mold release force required in the mold release process can be greatly reduced.

  Thus, if the release force required in the release process can be greatly reduced, the quality of the transfer pattern can be improved, and a release layer by applying a release agent is not required. Ultra miniaturization becomes possible. Moreover, since the apparatus load given to the imprint apparatus 1 itself can be reduced in the mold release process due to the significant reduction in the mold release force, the durability of the imprint apparatus 1 can also be improved. In addition, the transfer pattern area can be easily expanded to develop a large transfer pattern area for transfer with high efficiency by greatly reducing the releasing force.

  That is, according to the present invention, the mold 30 can be easily released from the object to be molded by greatly reducing the release force without using a release agent.

<5. Modification>

  The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but includes forms to which various modifications and improvements are added within the scope of deriving specific effects obtained by the constituent features of the invention and combinations thereof. .

  For example, in FIG. 1 described above, the entire imprint execution unit 2 of the imprint apparatus 1 is accommodated in the chamber 10 that can be kept in a sealed state, but such a configuration is not necessarily required. Absent.

  After transferring the concavo-convex pattern of the mold to the molding material, the location related to the mold release process for releasing the mold from the molding material, specifically, the pressure in the space including at least the mold and the molding material, If it can be made lower than the pressure between the mold and the workpiece, the release force can be greatly reduced in the release process.

  For example, although not shown, the chamber in which the space including the mold 30 of the imprint execution unit 2, the resist layer 22 </ b> A as the object to be molded, the substrate 21, and the substrate placement unit 23 is hermetically sealed in the mold release process. And is configured to be controllable so that the pressure is lowered by a vacuum pump connected to the chamber while keeping a sealed state.

  Thereby, by reducing the pressure in the chamber so as to approach the pressure between the mold and the molding object, the mold release force required when releasing the mold from the molding object in the mold release process is achieved. It can be greatly reduced.

  In this way, since only the pressure in the space related to the mold release process can be controlled, the chamber 10 that can accommodate the entire imprint execution unit 2 is not required as described with reference to FIG. There is an advantage that the apparatus configuration can be reduced in size.

  This embodiment mode shows one preferred embodiment mode of the present invention. That is, the present invention is not limited to the contents of the present embodiment, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist thereof. Of course, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to optical imprinting but can be similarly applied to thermal imprinting.

  Next, an Example is given and this invention is demonstrated concretely. However, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the following examples. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a result of measuring the maximum mold release force applied when the mold 30 is released from the resist layer 22 </ b> A that is a molding target.

<Example 1>
In the first embodiment, the imprint execution unit 2 of the imprint apparatus 1 that performs imprinting by optical imprinting is housed in the chamber 10 using the mold 30 to which the release agent is not applied. The mold release process was performed by reducing the pressure of the printing atmosphere with the vacuum pump 4. The imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 before the release process was atmospheric pressure.

  First, the imprint executing unit 2 transfers a fine uneven pattern (track pitch Tp: 50 nm) of the mold 30 to the resist 22 as a molding material, and cures the resist 22 by irradiating ultraviolet rays for a predetermined time. A resist layer 22A was formed.

  Next, the valve 8 is closed under the control of the operation controller 3, and the mold 30 is released from the resist layer 22 </ b> A that is the object to be molded by reducing the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 to 50 k [Pa] with the vacuum pump 4. did. When the maximum release force at this time was measured, it was 17 [N].

<Comparative Example 1>
In Comparative Example 1, a mold 30 in which a fine uneven pattern (track pitch Tp: 50 nm) was formed as in Example 1 was used. The mold 30 was transferred to a resist 22 as a molding material, and the resist 22 was cured by irradiating with ultraviolet rays for a predetermined time to form a resist layer 22A.

  In Comparative Example 1, the mold 30 was released from the resist layer 22A as usual without changing the pressure of the imprint atmosphere. The maximum release force at this time was measured to be 26 [N].

  In FIG. 3, the pressure [atm] (1 [atm] = 101325) of the imprint atmosphere in the chamber 10 of the imprint execution unit 2 using the imprint apparatus 1 and the mold 30 similar to those in Example 1 and Comparative Example 1. [Pa]) shows the result of measuring the maximum mold release force [N] when the mold release process is executed by increasing the pressure from a reduced pressure state to atmospheric pressure. 3 also includes the results of Example 1 and Comparative Example 1. As shown in FIG. 3, it can be seen that the maximum mold release force required to release the mold 30 from the resist layer 22A is smaller as the pressure of the imprint atmosphere is reduced than the atmospheric pressure.

<Evaluation>
As is clear from the above results, it can be understood that the maximum mold release force can be reduced as the pressure of the imprint atmosphere is reduced from the atmospheric pressure. In other words, by controlling the pressure of the imprint atmosphere to be reduced, it is possible to significantly reduce the release force required when releasing the mold 30 from the molding object without requiring a release agent. It becomes.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Imprint apparatus 2 Imprint execution part 3 Operation controller 4 Vacuum pump 7 Vacuum flange 8 Valve 9 Piping 10 Chamber 21 Substrate 22 Resist 22A Resist layer 23 Substrate placement part 30 Mold

Claims (4)

In an imprint apparatus for molding a molding by transferring a desired pattern formed on a mold to a molding material,
Pressure adjusting means for adjusting a pressure in a space including at least the mold and the molding; and
At the time of releasing the mold from the molding object, the pressure in the space including the mold and the molding object is reduced by the pressure adjusting means so as to approach the pressure between the mold and the molding object. An imprint apparatus comprising: a control unit. The imprint apparatus is stored in a sealed chamber,
The control means controls the pressure in the chamber to be reduced by the pressure adjusting means so as to approach the pressure between the mold and the molding object when releasing the mold from the molding object. The imprint apparatus according to claim 1. In a mold release method of an imprint apparatus for molding a molding by transferring a desired pattern formed on a mold to a molding material,
A pressure adjusting step for adjusting a pressure in a space including at least the mold and the molding; and
When releasing the mold from the molding object, the pressure in the space including the mold and the molding object is reduced by the pressure adjusting step so as to approach the pressure between the mold and the molding object. A mold release method comprising: a control step. The imprint apparatus is stored in a sealed chamber,
In the control step, the pressure in the chamber is reduced by the pressure adjustment step so that the pressure in the chamber approaches the pressure between the mold and the molding object when releasing the mold from the molding object. The mold release method according to claim 3.

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