Patent ID: 8721952

Claim:
A method of nano lithography, said method comprising: applying a photoresist to a frontside of a workpiece, the workpiece being held by a flexible seal against a housing structure, and the workpiece having a thickness and comprising a material so as to be flexible in a range of approximately microns in a direction perpendicular to the frontside of the flexible workpiece; positioning the resist-coated workpiece with respect to a template so that the resist-coated workpiece is adjacent to the template; purging a space between the template and the resist-coated workpiece with a gas; evacuating the space between said template and said workpiece; and applying a pneumatic pressure to a backside of the flexible workpiece against an etch pattern formed on the transparent window to compensate for variations in a flatness of the flexible workpiece by a flexure of the flexible workpiece to transfer a pattern from said template to a portion of a surface of said resist-coated workpiece; wherein said template is configured to flex to conform said surface on a length scale larger than features of said pattern to compensate for variations in a flatness of the workpiece by a flexure of the template, and wherein the template is transparent to radiation for exposing a photoresist farmed on said workpiece, thereby allowing said radiation to pass through said template and cure said photoresist.