Rapid Fabrication of Microstructures onto Plastic Substrates by Infrared Hot Embossing
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S.-J. Liu
Abstract
This paper proposes a rapid fabrication technique of polymeric micro-block arrays using an IR hot embossing process. A pneumatically actuated embossing facility with conventional IR heating was designed, constructed and tested in our laboratory. To mold micro-blocks onto the plastic plates, a silicon mold with an array of micro-block cavities was fabricated by photolithography and deep reactive ion etching. During the embossing process, a PMMA plate was first placed above the mold. A ceramic IR heater was placed above the PMMA plate to heat the mold. The IR passed through the transparent PMMA to reach and heat up the mold surface. After retrieval of the IR heater, the pneumatically actuated embossing facility pressed the plastic plate against the hot master mold. A micro-block array was obtained. The effect of various processing parameters on the replicability of the micro-blocks was investigated. Under the proper processing conditions, the arrays of polymeric micro-blocks, with a dimension of 100 m × 80 μm × 40 μm, could be successfully fabricated. The experimental results in this study suggest that IR heated embossing could provide an effective way of fabricating large-area microstructures onto plastic plates. This would provide significant advantages in terms of a shorter cycle time as well as improved product quality.
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© 2008, Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Contents
- Contents
- Regular Contributed Articles
- 10.3139/217.0979
- Polymer Plastication during Injection Molding
- Polymer Plastication during Injection Molding
- Challenges to the Formation of Nano-cells in Foaming Processes
- Manufacture of Spinnerets for Synthetic Micro-fibers by LIGA and Micro-injection Molding Technique
- Study of Solid-plug Conveying in a Centrifugal Extruder
- Experimental Study on the Sliding Friction and Wear Characteristics of Roller Burnished Polymers
- Studying the Effective Thermal Properties of Solids in Extrusion Machinery using a Discrete Particle Simulation Approach
- Polymer-ridge Waveguide Fabrication by Gas-assisted UV Embossing with a Soft Mold
- Rheological Behavior of Immiscible PS/PMMA Blends during Dynamic Plasticating Extrusion
- Rapid Fabrication of Microstructures onto Plastic Substrates by Infrared Hot Embossing
- Design of Calibrators for Profile Extrusion – Optimizing Multi-step Systems
- Inhibition of Thermal Oxidation Destruction of PBT/HDPE Blends by Organic Compounds of Five-valent Phosphorus
- Non-isothermal Model for the Drive Power Calculation of Single-screw Plasticating Units
- PPS News
- PPS News
- Seikei-Kakou Abstracts
- Seikei-Kakou Abstracts
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Contents
- Contents
- Regular Contributed Articles
- 10.3139/217.0979
- Polymer Plastication during Injection Molding
- Polymer Plastication during Injection Molding
- Challenges to the Formation of Nano-cells in Foaming Processes
- Manufacture of Spinnerets for Synthetic Micro-fibers by LIGA and Micro-injection Molding Technique
- Study of Solid-plug Conveying in a Centrifugal Extruder
- Experimental Study on the Sliding Friction and Wear Characteristics of Roller Burnished Polymers
- Studying the Effective Thermal Properties of Solids in Extrusion Machinery using a Discrete Particle Simulation Approach
- Polymer-ridge Waveguide Fabrication by Gas-assisted UV Embossing with a Soft Mold
- Rheological Behavior of Immiscible PS/PMMA Blends during Dynamic Plasticating Extrusion
- Rapid Fabrication of Microstructures onto Plastic Substrates by Infrared Hot Embossing
- Design of Calibrators for Profile Extrusion – Optimizing Multi-step Systems
- Inhibition of Thermal Oxidation Destruction of PBT/HDPE Blends by Organic Compounds of Five-valent Phosphorus
- Non-isothermal Model for the Drive Power Calculation of Single-screw Plasticating Units
- PPS News
- PPS News
- Seikei-Kakou Abstracts
- Seikei-Kakou Abstracts