Polymer inking as a micro- and nanopatterning technique

A polymer inking technique to form micro and nanopatterns on a substrate was discussed. In polymer inking technique, a polymer film is first spin coated onto a patterned hard mold. By contracting the mold and substrate at a suitable temperature and pressure, the polymer film on the protruted surfaces of the mold is transferred to the substrate, forming a positive image of the mold. It was found that the patterns inked from poly(carbonate) showed larger dimension shrinkage (∼75%) compared to that from poly(methyl methacrylate) (∼30%).