The invention concerns a super hydrophobic surface for handling a liquid and/or able to be contacted by a liquid, said surface comprising at least one hydrophobic liquid contact surface portion, wherein said hydrophobic liquid contact surface portion presents a micro- and nano-meter hierarchical patterned structure, the structure comprising: —homogeneously distributed micrometre-sized pillars (1), and—homogeneously distributed nanometre-sized pillars (2), preferably said pillars (2) having a dimension below 1 micrometer, at the upper surface of the micrometre-sized pillars, and—nanometre-sized protrusions (3) at the upper surface of the nanometre-sized pillars, the protrusions being positioned in a non-periodic, irregular pattern. The invention also relates to the use of such surfaces with micro- and nano-meter hierarchical patterned structure, for example in handling hot liquids, and a corresponding manufacturing process, e.g. using an injection moulding process for producing the component in polymer.

An imprinting method includes the steps of: adding a soluble material to a master mold; solidifying the soluble material to form a soluble mold; positioning an adhesive on a side of the soluble mold opposite to the master mold; attaching a taking device to the adhesive; removing the taking device from the master mold together with the soluble mold; positioning the soluble mold on a polymer layer; applying a first high temperature and a pressure to the soluble mold to form a transferred pattern corresponding to a convex-concave pattern of the soluble mold on the polymer layer and separate a support plate and a tape of the taking device; applying a second high temperature to the soluble mold to solidify the polymer layer; and dissolving the soluble mold by using a solvent to separate the solidified polymer layer and the support plate.

An imprint device of an embodiment includes an imaging device and a controller. The controller acquires, from the imaging device, a reference image which is a captured image of the template before the imprint operation at a predetermined imprint position and an imprint image which is a captured image of the template during the imprint operation at the imprint position. The control unit acquires features based on interference fringes appearing on the template during the imprint operation from a difference image representing a difference between the reference image and the imprint image. The control unit performs processes for controlling the imprint operation based on the features.

An imprint apparatus that forms a pattern by imprinting an imprint material on a substrate using an original, includes: an original support unit; a substrate support unit; a driving unit relatively driving the original support unit and the substrate support unit; a detection unit detecting a first alignment mark of the original and a second alignment mark of the substrate; a position adjustment unit adjusting a relative position between the original and the detection unit; and a control unit controlling the position adjustment unit to adjust a relative position between the original and the detection unit based on a position of the first alignment mark detected by the detection unit in a field of view of the detection unit during imprinting, and perform an alignment between the substrate and the original by the driving unit based on the first and second alignment marks detected by the detection unit.

The method for producing a skin material includes heat-pressing a raw material using an embossing die to obtain a skin material having a concave part formed on a front surface side and a flat back surface. The raw material is heat-pressed between the embossing die and an elastic mat to form, as the concave part, at least one of a plurality of concave parts for intensity display having different depths of a bottom and a concave part for gradation display in which the depth of the bottom gradually changes.

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus that performs a process of forming an imprint material on a substrate using a mold, with respect to each of a plurality of shot regions on the substrate, the apparatus comprising: a detector configured to detect positions of marks provided in the substrate; and a controller configured to control, in the process, alignment between the substrate and the mold based on a detection result by the detector, wherein each of the plurality of shot regions includes two or more transfer regions where a pattern of an original has been individually transferred in a pre-process, and in the process on a specific shot region, the controller controls the alignment based on the detection result of the marks provided in the transfer region other than the smallest transfer region among the two or more transfer regions.

An antimicrobial protective film that can be applied to a surface such as a screen of a smartphone or computing device. The user is able to view items displayed on the screen and to interact with the screen via touch or the like. The protective film includes a base layer or film upon which a second layer is formed, and this second layer includes numerous structures, e.g., micro or nano structures. The structures have a geometry that is unfriendly for viruses and bacteria. The structures are embedded with antimicrobial and/or antiviral agents that migrate out of the structures and kill or at least detrimentally affect the viruses or bacteria received within the second layer. This effect is combined with the fact that the structures are made with geometries particularly devastating to microbes during elongation and contraction of the structures with the thermal-based expansion and contraction of the underlying base layer.

A substrate processing method includes a first process configured to process a substrate with a top plate disposed nearer an upper surface of the substrate, the substrate being held by a substrate holding unit of a first substrate holding apparatus, a second process configured to raise the substrate with the top plate disposed on the first substrate holding apparatus to make a space between the substrate holding unit and the substrate, a third process configured to insert a substrate conveyance apparatus for conveying the substrate with the top plate disposed on the first substrate holding apparatus to a second substrate holding apparatus into the space, and a fourth process configured to convey the substrate to the second substrate holding apparatus.

A control apparatus which controls a force applied to an object, includes a driver configured to apply the force to the object, an estimator configured to estimate, based on information related to a state of the object, an estimated value of a disturbance force to be applied to the object, a corrector configured to correct, based on the estimated value, a command value provided to the driver so as to reduce an influence of the disturbance force, and a determiner configured to execute processing for determining a plurality of parameter values to be used by the estimator to obtain the estimated value based on the information.

The present invention is to provide an imprint device that can form a circuit pattern with high accuracy even if a deviation occurs in a positional relationship between the circuit pattern and an alignment mark. The imprint device performs an imprinting process in which a mold on which a pattern is formed is brought in contact with an imprint material on a substrate and the pattern is transferred to the substrate at a target position on the substrate, and includes an alignment unit that performs alignment of the mold with the substrate such that the mold and the substrate are at an alignment position corrected based on an amount of relative positional deviation between a pattern mark formed near the pattern of the mold and an alignment mark of the mold obtained by measuring the pattern mark and the alignment mark, and a curing unit that cures the imprint material at the position at which alignment is performed by the alignment unit.