A stamping technology developed by the Quantum Science Research operation of Hewlett-Packard Labs appears ready to start strutting its stuff out in the marketplace. Dubbed nanoimprint lithography (NIL), the technology has been used by HP to create prototype circuits with lines as narrow as 15 nanometers. This figure, according to HP, is "about one-third the dimension of the features in the most advanced circuits that will be commercially available this year."

HP licensed the NIL technology in May of this year to a startup named Nanolithosolutions, which might be considered something of an HP spinout, given that it is the recipient of HP equity funding and that one of its two cofounders is a former employee of HP Labs. Nanolithosolutions' contribution to the furtherance of the technology so far consists of a modular NIL tool for photolithographic mask- alignment equipment.

HP, which has been tinkering with nanodevices since the late 1990s, never intended to commercialize NIL itself, according to Stan Williams, who is an HP Senior Fellow, as well as serving as the director of the Quantum Science Research operation.

"Because HP and other companies need unique tools to conduct nanoscale research and development," he said, "we created the underlying technology that makes this tool possible. But we rely on innovative companies like Nanolithosolutions to do the additional engineering necessary to make user-friendly tools commercially available."

Now, an established equipment supplier has adopted the NIL technology in the form of the Nanolithosolutions mask tool. Optical Associates Inc. (OAI), an established specialist in manufacturing equipment for semiconductor devices and MEMS, has started offering the tool as a standard option on its mask aligners. The company will also retrofit mask aligners that are already in the field with the new nanoimprinting tool. OAI is, further, supporting the NIL technology with a special controller along with a starter kit of materials.

OAI dubs NIL "a simple, easy to use process." It consists of building the desired circuit pattern into a silicon dioxide stamp, which is pressed into a polymer-based material, then hardened through UV curing. According to Nanolithosolutions' CEO Bo Pi, NIL will enable "reliable, repeatable processes for exploring biochips, photonics chips and many other applications...[at about] a tenth the cost of current technology."

"After extensive comparisons, OAI chose the HP process due to its one-step Auto Release" which simplifies the imprint process," OAI said.

OAI has a history of leveraging modular tools from third-party suppliers to extend its range of equipment at the leading edge of electronics manufacturing. In early 2005, for example, the company tapped into the technology of CLP Microtechnologies to adapt its mask aligners for use in the fabrication of microfluidic devices based on polymer materials.

CLP's Contact Liquid Photolithographic Polymerization (CliPP) technology, originally developed at the University of Colorado, is apt for constructing both 2D and 3D microfluidic devices. It "exploits unique photo-initiation chemistry, which results in surface modification and fabrication of high aspect ratio structures from different materials with numerous covalently adhered layers," according to OAI.