In nanoimprint lithography (NIL), materials define the process window. Resin behaviour directly impacts replication fidelity, throughput, defectivity, and ultimately whether a prototype can transition into stable, high-volume manufacturing.

Why material selection becomes the bottleneck in NIL scale-up

A common pattern in nanoimprint development:

1. A structure is successfully fabricated at lab scale

2. Replication is validated on a prototype system

3. Scale-up introduces defects, variability, and yield loss

In most cases, the limitation is not tooling… it is material-process mismatch.
A high-performance UV-NIL resin must balance multiple interdependent parameters:

In rolling nanoimprint lithography, additional constraints apply. Transparent templates and substrates are often required to enable effective UV curing through the nip, and viscosity must be tightly matched to feature size—typically lower viscosity for submicron structures and moderate viscosity for larger geometries.
Substrate interaction is another critical factor. Adhesion behaviour on PET, PC, silicon, or coated films must be validated early, as it directly affects yield and long-term process stability.
Without a structured approach, balancing these parameters can significantly slow development and increase risk during scale-up.

Maturing our NIL materials portfolio from 250+ formulations in-house

Stensborg’s consumables portfolio is built on extensive in-house formulation and validation. More than 250 resin systems have been developed and tested, covering feature resolutions from approximately 5 nm to 100 µm. Today, 20–25 formulations remain in active production use, forming a validated and application-flexible material base.

This dataset has been consolidated into a high-performance resin portfolio, designed for consistent replication and reliable scale-up across R&D and industrial environments.

Stensborg Light-Curing Resins for Rolling Nanoimprint Lithography

These formulations are not “generic materials”—they are process-matched chemistries, engineered specifically for rolling nanoimprint systems.

Beyond materials: nanoimprint process development as an integrated partner

A common misconception for optical engineers scaling metasurfaces with NIL or photonics teams moving to pilot production is that selecting a resin is a one-time decision. In practice, material selection is iterative and tightly coupled to process conditions.

At Stensborg, consumables are deployed within a structured development framework. This approach is designed for teams looking to scale UV nanoimprint lithography from prototype to high-volume manufacturing, with validated materials, process development, and roll-to-roll system integration.

We operate as a nanoimprint development partner, supporting customers from early-stage validation through to high-volume roll-to-roll manufacturing system deployment.

This integrated methodology (see our complete engineering services) ensures that material behaviour is always validated within real process conditions, not in isolation. This allows Stensborg to reduce development cycles from months to weeks and de-risk scale-up by validating materials and processes together, ultimately accelerating time-to-market.

Application-driven material engineering in roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography

Final material selection is dictated by functional requirements. Stensborg supports development across a wide range of nanostructured applications:

A scalable solution for your nanoimprinting deployment

As nanoimprint lithography moves into high-volume manufacturing, performance is defined by the stability of the full process window rather than individual components.

Reducing 250+ formulations to a focused set of core resins is not simplification, but standardisation built on validated process understanding across viscosity, curing kinetics, substrate interaction, and feature fidelity. The result is a consumables portfolio that enables faster implementation, improved process stability, and smoother scale-up from desktop R&D systems to industrial roll-to-roll production.

In nanoimprint lithography, success is not determined by materials alone —but by how well materials, machinery, and process are engineered together.