High resolution 3D nanoimprint technology

Optical spectroscopy is a very important sensing technique and reveals a high potential for numerous applications in both industrial and scientific applications. Low-cost, strongly miniaturized spectrometers are highly required for modern sensing systems, e. g., for energy technology, measurement techniques, safety, security, IT and mechanical technologies. The strong miniaturization is highly required for example in so called “smart personal environments”. Among all the miniaturized spectrometers, one of the most attractive miniaturization approaches is the Fabry-Pérot-filter-based microspectrometer. However, the existing Fabry-Pérot-filter-based microspectrometers require complicated fabrication steps for patterning the 3D filter cavities with different heights, which is not cost efficient for the industrial fabrication. Novel Fabry-Pérot-filter-based microspectrometers with nanoimprinted cavities were designed by INA and were proposed and introduced as “nanospectrometers”. All different filter cavities could be fabricated in one single step using nanoimprint technology. However, high vertical resolution 3D nanoimprint technology was not available and should be developed in this work.