A METHOD OF FORMING NANO-PATTERNS ON A SUBSTRATE
20190187337 ยท 2019-06-20
Inventors
- Kwang Wei Joel YANG (Singapore, SG)
- Zhaogang Dong (Singapore, SG)
- Ramon Paniagua-Dominguez (Singapore, SG)
- Arseniy Kuznetsov (Singapore, SG)
- Yefeng Yu (Singapore, SG)
Cpc classification
G02B1/118
PHYSICS
B81C2201/0149
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B82Y40/00
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B81C1/00031
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
H01L21/0337
ELECTRICITY
International classification
G02B1/118
PHYSICS
B81C1/00
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
G03F7/00
PHYSICS
H01L21/311
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
This application relates to a method of forming nano-patterns on a substrate comprising the step of forming a plurality of nanostructures on a dielectric substrate, wherein the nanostructures are dimensioned or spaced apart from each other by a scaling factor of the dielectric substrate with reference to a silicon substrate. There is also provided a method of forming a nano-patterned substrate comprising the step of forming a plurality of nanostructures on a dielectric substrate, wherein said dielectric substrate comprises an anti-reflectance layer disposed on a base substrate. There is also provided a method of forming a nano-patterned substrate comprising the steps of forming a plurality of nano structures on a dielectric substrate, wherein the dielectric substrate comprises an anti-reflectance layer disposed on a base substrate, wherein the nanostructures comprise a dielectric material, and wherein the nanostructures are dimensioned or spaced apart from each other by a scaling factor of the dielectric material with reference to a silicon substrate.
Claims
1.-25. (canceled)
26. A method of forming a nano-patterned substrate comprising the step of forming a plurality of nanostructures on a dielectric substrate, wherein said nanostructures are dimensioned or spaced apart from each other by a scaling factor of said dielectric substrate with reference to a silicon substrate.
27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the scaling factor is a ratio of a refractive index of the silicon to a refractive index of the dielectric substrate.
28. The method according to claim 26, wherein the nanostructures are integrally formed on said dielectric substrate.
29. The method according to claim 26, wherein the dielectric substrate comprises an anti-reflectance layer disposed on a surface of a base substrate or wherein the anti-reflectance layer has a reflective index determined by {square root over (n.sub.airn.sub.sub)}, wherein n.sub.air is the reflective index of air and n.sub.sub is the reflective index of the base substrate.
30. The method according to claim 29, wherein the anti-reflectance layer has a thickness of about 50 nm to about 100 nm.
31. The method according to claim 26, wherein the surface of the dielectric substrate comprises a plurality of protrusions, recessions or dimples.
32. The method according to claim 26, wherein the dimension and position of said nanostructures comprises lateral dimensions, vertical dimensions, inter-structure distance or any combinations thereof.
33. The method according to claim 26, wherein the nanostructure has a geometrical shape selected from the group consisting of disks, tubes, wires, columns, cylinders, pyramidal, conical, rings, and rectangular prisms.
34. The method according to claim 26, wherein the dielectric substrate is selected from the group consisting of diamond, glass, polyethylene (PE), poly-arylene ethers (PAE), parylene, Teflon, ceramics, mica, polycarbonate (PC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyamides, polysiloxane, polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Titanium dioxide, Gallium Nitride, Titanium Nitride, Gallium Phosphide, and Germanium.
35. The method according to claim 26, wherein the dielectric substrate comprises a metal or its salt thereof, wherein the metal is selected from the group consisting of Germanium, Titanium, indium, Gallium, Tin, Lead, Antimony, Bismuth, Lithium, Rubidium, Barium, Zirconium, Tungsten, and Tantalum.
36. A method of forming a nano-patterned substrate comprising the step of forming a plurality of nanostructures on a dielectric substrate, wherein said dielectric substrate comprises an anti-reflectance layer disposed on a base substrate.
37. The method according to claim 36, wherein the nanostructures are integrally formed on said dielectric substrate.
38. The method according to claim 36, wherein the anti-reflectance layer has a reflective index determined by {square root over (n.sub.airn.sub.sub)}, wherein n.sub.air is the reflective index of air and n.sub.sub is the reflective index of the base substrate.
39. The method according to claim 36, wherein the anti-reflectance layer has a thickness of about 50 nm to about 100 nm.
40. The method according to claim 36, wherein the surface of the dielectric substrate comprises a plurality of protrusions, recessions or dimples.
41. The method according to claim 36, wherein the dimension and position of said nanostructures comprises lateral dimensions, vertical dimensions, inter-structure distance or any combinations thereof.
42. The method according to claim 36, wherein the nanostructure has a geometrical shape selected from the group consisting of disks, tubes, wires, columns, cylinders, pyramidal, conical, rings, and rectangular prisms.
43. The method according to claim 36, wherein the base substrate is a dielectric material, or silicon or wherein said dielectric substrate is selected from the group consisting of diamond, glass, polyethylene (PE), poly-arylene ethers (PAE), parylene, Teflon, ceramics, mica, polycarbonate (PC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyamides, polysiloxane, polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Titanium dioxide, Gallium Nitride, Titanium Nitride, Gallium Phosphide, and Germanium or wherein the dielectric substrate comprises a metal or its salt thereof, wherein the metal is selected from the group consisting of Germanium, Titanium, Indium, Gallium, Tin, Lead, Antimony, Bismuth, Lithium, Rubidium, Barium, Zirconium, Tungsten, and Tantalum.
44. A method of forming a nano-patterned substrate comprising the steps of forming a plurality of nanostructures on a dielectric substrate, wherein the dielectric substrate comprises an anti-reflectance layer disposed on a base substrate, wherein the nanostructures comprise a dielectric material, and wherein the nanostructures are dimensioned or spaced apart from each other by a scaling factor of the dielectric material with reference to a silicon substrate.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0082] The accompanying drawings illustrate a disclosed embodiment and serves to explain the principles of the disclosed embodiment. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed for purposes of illustration only, and not as a definition of the limits of the invention.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0091] Referring to
EXAMPLES
[0092] Non-limiting examples of the invention and a comparative example will be further described in greater detail by reference to specific Examples, which should not be construed as in any way limiting the scope of the invention.
Example 1
[0093] Fabrication of Silicon Nanodisks on a Silicon Substrate to Obtain a Basic Colour Palette for High-Resolution Colour Printing
[0094] The method of
[0095] As shown in
[0096]
[0097] By varying the ICP etching time, different silicon nanostructures were fabricated on the silicon substrate with varying heights. It was observed that height was an important parameter to achieve vivid colour display. For example, when silicon nanodisks had a height of 70 nm, the colour palette did not show obvious vivid colours. However, when the height of the silicon nanodisk was 129 nm, a more vivid colour palette was observed. This difference was shown in
[0098] Further, embodiments of silicon nanodisks were also fabricated by varying the nanodisk diameters from 50 nm to 180 nm, and the gap size from 10 nm to 180 nm. Referring to
[0099] Further, a colour palette consolidating the various colour pixels was obtained based on the embodiments of the silicon nanodisks with the gap size varied from 10 nm to 180 nm, and the disk diameter varied from 50 nm to 180 nm. The height of the nanodisks was 129 nm. Each colour pixel had a length of 5 m. A bright-field optical microscope image of the color palette was taken by using an optical microscope Olympus MX61 set-up (20 air objective lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.4) for the respective nanodisk gap size. As shown in
[0100] Analysis of Optical Reflectance Spectrums Obtained Experimentally and Theoretically
[0101] The optical reflectance spectrum of the fabricated silicon nanodisks was obtained by using a micro-spectrometer (CRAIC UV-VIS-NIR QDI 2010) with the x36 objective lens and a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.50, where the optical reflectance spectrum is normalized to the optical reflectance spectrum of a flat silicon substrate. Referring to
[0102] As shown in
[0103] This result was compared with a theoretical prediction of silicon nanodisks with the same set of parameters (gap size of 40 nm, height of 129 nm, and diameters from 50 nm to 180 nm).
[0104] Analysis of Excited Optical Modes in the Nanostructures at Dip or Peak Wavelength Positions
[0105] To gain a deeper physical interpretation of the optical reflectance spectrum obtained in
[0106] Moreover, as shown in
[0107] Detailed theoretical analysis was conducted using full numerical simulations based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and the multipole decomposition technique. The multipole decomposition technique allowed identification of the modes excited in the system by analyzing the currents induced within the particles. The analysis revealed that the vivid colour of silicon nanostructures on silicon substrate originated from the electric/magnetic resonances within the silicon nanostructures, and the optical coupling between neighboring silicon nanodisks.
Example 2
[0108] Analysis of Diamond Nanodisks by Scaling Based on a Refractive Index Ratio
[0109] The fabrication method and the analysis of the colour produced of silicon nano disks as described in Example 1 was applied to all other dielectric materials. The corresponding dimensions and inter-structure distances of the nanodisks for all other types of dielectric materials was calculated with reference to the fabricated silicon substrate based on a scaling factor. The scaling factor was defined as the ratio of the refractive index of silicon to the refractive index of a selected dielectric material, i.e., n.sub.si/n.sub.dielectric.
[0110] Diamond nanodisks were fabricated from a diamond substrate by simulation using the finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method. The corresponding diameter, height and gap size were calculated by multiplying them with the scaling factor. The refractive index of diamond (n.sub.diamond) was 2.4 and the refractive index ratio was calculated to be 1.67. Hence, the scaling factor of 1.67 was used as the multiplicative factor to obtain the dimensions and inter-structure spacing of the diamond nanodisks based on the corresponding values from the silicon nanodisks.
[0111] Embodiments of diamond nanodisks were fabricated by varying the nanodisk diameters from 16.7 nm to 300.6 nm (by multiplying the corresponding silicon nanodisk diameters from 10 nm to 180 nm with the scaling factor of 1.67). The diamond nanodisk height was 217.1 nm (by multiplying the corresponding silicon nanodisk height of 130 nm with the scaling factor of 1.67). The gap size was set at 40 nm.
[0112] Referring to
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Example 3
[0114] Addition of an Anti-Reflectance Dielectric Layer
[0115] To improve color fidelity of the dielectric nanostructures, an anti-reflectance dielectric layer was inserted between the dielectric nanostructures and dielectric substrate. The anti-reflectance layer significantly enhances the color fidelity of the substrate. The fundamental principle of inserting this anti-reflectance dielectric layer was to minimize the background optical signal, which was not originated from the scattering of the dielectric nano structures.
[0116] In this example, the materials used for both the dielectric nanodisks and dielectric substrates were silicon. The optimal material for the anti-reflectance dielectric layer was determined by a refractive index value calculated based on {square root over (n.sub.airn.sub.sub)}, where n.sub.air is the refractive index of air and n.sub.sub is the refractive index of the base substrate. For a silicon substrate, the optimal anti-reflection dielectric layer should be close to 2.
[0117] Therefore, a possible material was Si.sub.3N.sub.4. Moreover, this anti-reflection layer was designed to have a minimum reflectance at the central wavelength at the visible regime (i.e. 550 nm) {square root over (n.sub.airn.sub.sub)}, where the corresponding optimal thickness of Si.sub.3N.sub.4 is calculated to be 60 nm. together with the corresponding thickness.
[0118] The optimal anti-reflection dielectric layer was found to be silicon nitride (Si.sub.3N.sub.4) with a thickness of 60 nm. The height and gap sizes of the silicon nanodisks were chosen to be 130 nm and 120 nm, respectively. The Si.sub.3N.sub.4 layer was deposited onto the silicon substrate by chemical vapour deposition. The deposition was carried out at a temperature of 20 C., a process pressure of 15 mTorr, and a deposition rate of 2 nm/min. The reactant gases were Silane (SiH.sub.4), Nitrogen (N.sub.2) and Argon (Ar). The gas flow rates were 20 sccm for SiH.sub.4, 25 sccm for N.sub.2, and 30 sccm for Ar.
[0119] Referring to
[0120] In another example, a Si.sub.3N.sub.4 layer with thickness of 70 nm was added to the silicon substrate. Silicon nanodisks were fabricated on the surface of Si.sub.3N.sub.4 layer with diameters ranging from 40 nm to 270 nm, gap sizes from 10 to 120 nm and a height of 130 nm. The various additive colour pixels were shown in
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
[0121] The nano-patterns/nanostructures formed by the method of the present disclosure may be used in high-resolution colour display, optical filters, optical data storage, image sensors, optical counterfeit.
[0122] Moreover, besides the application for high-resolution colour display, the nano-patterns/nanostructures may also function as colour filters to be patterned directly on sensors, or for the structures themselves to be wavelength-selective sensors with sub-wavelength dimensions.
[0123] The nano-patterns formed by the method of the present disclosure may be used in the designs of jewelry. For example, the vibrant colours produced from diamond nanostructures can have applications to develop colourful diamond jewelries.
[0124] It will be apparent that various other modifications and adaptations of the invention will be apparent to the person skilled in the art after reading the foregoing disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and it is intended that all such modifications and adaptations come within the scope of the appended claims.