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Rapid Fabrication of Microstructures onto Plastic Substrates by Infrared Hot Embossing

  • S.-J. Liu , K.-Y. Lin and M.-K Li
Published/Copyright: March 26, 2013
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International Polymer Processing
From the journal International Polymer Processing Volume 23 Issue 3

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.

∗ Mail address: Shih-Jung Liu, Polymer Rheology and Processing Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chang Gung University, 259, Wen-Hwa 1st Road, Kwei-San, Tao-Yuan 333, Taiwan. E-mail:

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Received: 2007-10-31
Accepted: 2008-1-17
Published Online: 2013-03-26
Published in Print: 2008-07-01

© 2008, Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Contents
  2. Contents
  3. Regular Contributed Articles
  4. 10.3139/217.0979
  5. Polymer Plastication during Injection Molding
  6. Polymer Plastication during Injection Molding
  7. Challenges to the Formation of Nano-cells in Foaming Processes
  8. Manufacture of Spinnerets for Synthetic Micro-fibers by LIGA and Micro-injection Molding Technique
  9. Study of Solid-plug Conveying in a Centrifugal Extruder
  10. Experimental Study on the Sliding Friction and Wear Characteristics of Roller Burnished Polymers
  11. Studying the Effective Thermal Properties of Solids in Extrusion Machinery using a Discrete Particle Simulation Approach
  12. Polymer-ridge Waveguide Fabrication by Gas-assisted UV Embossing with a Soft Mold
  13. Rheological Behavior of Immiscible PS/PMMA Blends during Dynamic Plasticating Extrusion
  14. Rapid Fabrication of Microstructures onto Plastic Substrates by Infrared Hot Embossing
  15. Design of Calibrators for Profile Extrusion – Optimizing Multi-step Systems
  16. Inhibition of Thermal Oxidation Destruction of PBT/HDPE Blends by Organic Compounds of Five-valent Phosphorus
  17. Non-isothermal Model for the Drive Power Calculation of Single-screw Plasticating Units
  18. PPS News
  19. PPS News
  20. Seikei-Kakou Abstracts
  21. Seikei-Kakou Abstracts
https://doi.org/10.3139/217.2145

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Contents
  2. Contents
  3. Regular Contributed Articles
  4. 10.3139/217.0979
  5. Polymer Plastication during Injection Molding
  6. Polymer Plastication during Injection Molding
  7. Challenges to the Formation of Nano-cells in Foaming Processes
  8. Manufacture of Spinnerets for Synthetic Micro-fibers by LIGA and Micro-injection Molding Technique
  9. Study of Solid-plug Conveying in a Centrifugal Extruder
  10. Experimental Study on the Sliding Friction and Wear Characteristics of Roller Burnished Polymers
  11. Studying the Effective Thermal Properties of Solids in Extrusion Machinery using a Discrete Particle Simulation Approach
  12. Polymer-ridge Waveguide Fabrication by Gas-assisted UV Embossing with a Soft Mold
  13. Rheological Behavior of Immiscible PS/PMMA Blends during Dynamic Plasticating Extrusion
  14. Rapid Fabrication of Microstructures onto Plastic Substrates by Infrared Hot Embossing
  15. Design of Calibrators for Profile Extrusion – Optimizing Multi-step Systems
  16. Inhibition of Thermal Oxidation Destruction of PBT/HDPE Blends by Organic Compounds of Five-valent Phosphorus
  17. Non-isothermal Model for the Drive Power Calculation of Single-screw Plasticating Units
  18. PPS News
  19. PPS News
  20. Seikei-Kakou Abstracts
  21. Seikei-Kakou Abstracts
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