Reliability and Fabrication of Molds for Nanoimprinting

During the last decade there has been a growing attention to nanoscaled materials and to the related technologies to produce them. The problems to overcome in the manufacturing of these kinds of items increase dramatically on decreasing the dimension of the devices. In this sense, the scientific research has been strongly stimulated to try to improve and optimize all the critical issues. One of the most attractive fields in nanomanufacturing is related to nanoimprinting, i.e. to the possibility to transfer a nanoscaled pattern from a mold to another substrate. In this technology, among the others, there are two main critical steps: the preparation of a good mold and the use of a correct releasing agent to reduce the sticking between the mold and the imprinted substrate. In this review paper the authors will describe the most recent advances on the preparation of the mold, including the studies on the releasing agents used during the manufacturing.