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We report the preparation of ZnO quantum dot hybrid luminescent resists for nanoimprint lithography. Photoluminescence spectra indicate that ZnO QDs@AMONIL have a significant increase in the luminescent intensity, an obvious blue-shift of emission peak and the Stoke's shift, revealing that ZnO QDs@AMONIL have dramatic luminescent property change instead of inhibiting or only preserving the optical properties of pure ZnO QDs. The fabrication of two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal structure on the ZnO QDs@AMONIL by UV-based nanoimprint lithography is demonstrated at last, which confirms the luminescent ZnO QDs@AMONIL reliable processing capabilities in wavelength-scale and envisions its promising applications in the optoelectronic micro-/nanodevices.

This article reviews the progress made in the sub-10 nm electron beam patterning of metal oxides over the last thirty years. The patterning of inorganic resists began with metal halides, they were soon taken over by metal oxides due to their excellent environmental stability. However, these inorganic materials, both halides and oxides, suffered from the requirement of very steep dose, thus rendering them useless for practical applications. This gave way to highly electron beam-sensitive stabilized metal alkoxides and metal naphthenates, with sensitively close to conventional electron beam resists such as poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) and calixarene. Furthermore, they show excellent line edge roughness characteristics at sub-10 nm scale, which is currently unmatched by any other electron beam resist. Recent applications of these resists such as an etch mask and their suitability as gate oxides will be highlighted.

The basic study of EPL has been done under the name of SCALPEL^® by AT&T (Lucent Technologies, then Agere Systems) from the beginning of 1990s and the name of PREVAIL for electron optical system by the joint work of IBM and Nikon. The features of EPL are larger sub-field size and higher acceleration voltage of electron for obtaining usable higher electrical current on wafer and a wide deflection width for obtaining higher throughput.

EPL system has such features as a large sub-field size, large deflection width, high electrical current, high acceleration voltage and thin Si stencil mask. EPL has been considered as one of the promising technologies for hp65nm node and beyond.

Nikon has developed the first EPL tool and it was delivered to Selete in Japan. The tool has been used for EPL technology evaluation and process development in the pilot line of Selete. This chapter describes the various aspects of EPL technology from basic concept through technology evaluation and future extendibility.