Combined AFM nano-machining and reactive ion etching to fabricate high aspect ratio structures

In this paper, a new combined method of sub-micron high aspect ratio structure fabrication is developed which can be used for production of nano imprint template. The process includes atomic force microscope (AFM) scratch nano-machining and reactive ion etching (RIE) fabrication. First, 40 nm aluminum film was deposited on the silicon substrate by magnetron sputtering, and then sub-micron grooves were fabricated on the aluminum film by nano scratch using AFM diamond tip. As aluminum film is a good mask for etching silicon, high aspect ratio structures were finally fabricated by RIE process. The fabricated structures were studied by SEM, which shows that the grooves are about 400 nm in width and 5 microm in depth. To obtain sub-micron scale groove structures on the aluminum film, experiments of nanomachining on aluminum films under various machining conditions were conducted. The depths of the grooves fabricated using different scratch loads were also studied by the AFM. The result shows that the material properties of the film/substrate are elastic-plastic following nearly a bilinear law with isotropic strain hardening. Combined AFM nanomachining and RIE process provides a relative lower cost nano fabrication technique than traditional e-beam lithography, and it has a good prospect in nano imprint template fabrication.