Abstract
In order to realize the replication of high-quality polymer microstructures with vertical and smooth sidewalls, a gas-assisted hot embossing process with low pressure supplied was optimized to eliminate the swallowtail phenomenon during pattern transfer and simplify workpiece process setting. With help of passive alignment clamp, the rate of replication greater than 95.5% for vertical sidewalls was successfully obtained under the optimum process condition. Accordingly, a root mean square sidewall roughness of 4.6 nm was measured for polymer trenches in comparison with that of 5.7 nm for the silicon mold using a bevel-cut preparation technique. Furthermore, the rate of bulging of less than 15% for polymer workpiece was also obtained. The experiment has demonstrated that high-precise polymer pattern replication is related to both process settings and mold morphology sizes.
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Abbreviations
- Te :
-
embossing temperature
- Tg :
-
glass transition temperature
- Tr :
-
demolding temperature
- To :
-
atmospheric temperature
- Pe :
-
embossing pressure
- Po :
-
atmospheric pressure
- t:
-
embossing temperature holding time
- Wt :
-
top width of trench
- Wb :
-
bottom width of trench
- D:
-
depth of trench
- D:
-
height of vertical sidewall
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Wan, L., Zhu, N., Li, X. et al. Optimization for solid polymer microstructure replication using gas-assisted hot embossing under low pressure. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 17, 1067–1072 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-016-0129-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-016-0129-2