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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2016
We investigated the fabrication of convex diamond-like carbon (DLC) basedmicrogears in room-temperature curing nanoimprint lithography (RTC-NIL) usingthe ladder-type hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ), as an application for the medicalmicro electro mechanical system (MEMS). The HSQ which is an inorganic polymer ofsol-gel system turns into a gel when exposed to air and has the siloxane bond.Therefore, the HSQ was used as RT-imprinting material, and also used as an oxidemask material in electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) oxygen (O2) ionshower etching. We fabricated the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold with concavemicrogear patterns which has 40, 50 and 60 μm-tip diameter and 300nm-depth. We carried out the RTC-NIL process using the PDMS mold under thefollowing optimum conditions of 0.10 MPa-imprinting pressure and 1.0min-imprinting time. We found that the residual layer of imprinted HSQ microgearpatterns was removed with ECR trifluoromethane (CHF3) ion showerunder the following conditions of 300 eV-ion energy and 2.0 min-etching time,and then microgears of the HSQ on the DLC film were etched with ECRO2 ion shower under the following conditions of 400 eV-ion energy and10 min-etching time. As a result, the convex DLC based microgears which have 40,50 and 60 μm-tip diameter and 400 nm-height were fabricated with highaccuracy in the new fabrication process of RTC-NIL.