Canon has announced that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Obducat. The agreement gives CMJ the exclusive rights to sell Obducat’s Nano Imprint Lithography equipment in Japan. Canon Marketing Japan will start marketing the equipment from March 1st, 2007 and enter into the new marketplace of nanoimprint equipment.
NIL equipments, by pressing stampers to resist coated on substrates, enable transferring small feature pattern to optical components etc in the nanometer range and realize cost efficient pattern replication compared to existing photolithography equipments. Nowadays, in line with the miniaturization and multifunctional capability of optical components such as polarizing elements, microlens arrays and LEDs or the density growth in storage devices such as magnetic or optical disks, needs for creating fine patterns to all kinds of substrates is growing. CMJ, having been marketing various equipments, including semiconductor-manufacturing equipments, LCD panel manufacturing equipments and measurement equipments, to the leading-edge industry, will further expand its business in the Industrial area with the new release of the nanoimprint equipment.
Obducat’ NIL equipment, utilizes Obducat’s proprietary “SoftPressTM ” technology, which enables air pressure to be evenly distributed, ensuring a uniform and thin pattern over substrates. In addition, Obducat’s “STUTM (Simultaneous Thermal and UVTM)” technology enables simultaneously combined UV and thermal NIL, allowing precise imprint to substrates. The patented “IPS (Intermediate Polymer Stamp)” imprint process enables contamination control and increases the stamp lifetime through a two-step process where the contact between the master stamp and the hard substrate is avoided. Instead a process with a soft intermediate stamp is used to transfer the pattern from the master to the substrate.
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