Chlorine-based inductively coupled plasma etching of GaAs wafer using tripodal paraffinic triptycene as an etching resist mask

We report the etching properties of tripodal paraffinic triptycene (TripC12) used as a thermal nanoimprint lithography (TNIL) resist mask in Cl2 plasma etching. Using thermally nanoimprinted TripC12 films, we achieved microfabrication of a GaAs substrate by Cl2-based inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed that the chemical structure of TripC12 remains intact after the ICP etching process using Cl2. We believe that TNIL using TripC12 films is useful for fabricating optical/electrical devices and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMSs).