Fabrication of Si Micro Mold via Tribo-Nanolithography Using Micro Polycrystalline Diamond Cantilever Tool.

A direct mechanical nanomachining, tribo-nanolithography (TNL), has been developed to fabricate micro mold on Si substrate in mechanical milling mode. An atomic force microscope (AFM) tip is replaced by a lab-made Si cantilever with a polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tool. Mechanical cutting by PCD tool enables simple fabrication of micro molds with several tens of nanometers depth. Machined cavities of the Si substrate are prepared as a master mold for additional micro molding using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Micro cavities are successfully duplicated in positive patterns similar to soft lithography. Normal loads of cantilever and AFM topographical images are used to discuss micro mold and micro molding characteristics.