Open Access

Benedikt Vatter

• This work aimed to apply the Floating Film Transfer Method (FTM), developed by Kaneto et.al., as a new way of coating planar and nonplanar substrates with photoresist. Focus laid on the creation of a workflow to coat the substrate and process it by UV-Lithography and Nanoimprint lithography. Conventional coating methods like spin-, spray- or dip coating are well established in today’s industry but are limited in their capabilities to coat curved and structured surfaces. FTM offers the possibility to overcome these limitations. Therefore, two negative resists AR N 4400 and AR N 4600 10 as well as two positive resists AR P 3110 and AZ MIR 701 were drop cast on deionized water. The resist spreads into a thin film that can be transferred to a planar or curved substrate. Profilometric and ellipsometric measurements were conducted to evaluate the topography of the resist. A non-uniform thickness distribution was found depending on the resist and parameters like solid content, water temperature, and the amount of surfactant. UV-Lithography and Nanoimprintl ithography were successfully performed with these films. Resolutions as low as 2,3±0,4 µm were achieved by UV-Lithography of AR P 3110. A periodic pattern with a pitch of 1,51 µm was transferred by thermal nanoimprint lithography to AR N 4400 10. As proof of concept Laser Direct Writing was performed to structure AZ MIR 701coated on a glass vial.