No Arabic abstract
Today, hot embossing and injection molding belong to the established plastic molding processes in microengineering. Based on experimental findings, a variety of microstructures have been replicated so far using the processes. However, with increasing requirements regarding the embossing surface and the simultaneous decrease of the structure size down into the nanorange, increasing know-how is needed to adapt hot embossing to industrial standards. To reach this objective, a German-Canadian cooperation project has been launched to study hot embossing theoretically by a process simulation and experimentally. The present publication shall report about the first results of the simulation - the modeling and simulation of large area replication based on an eight inch microstructured mold.
In this paper, we will report our achievements in developing large area patterning of multilayered ceramic green composites using roller embossing. The aim of our research is to pattern large area ceramic green composites using a modified roller laminating apparatus, which is compatible with screen printing machines, for integration of embossing and screen printing. The instrumentation of our roller embossing apparatus, as shown in Figure1, consists of roller 1 and rollers 2. Roller 1 is heated up to the desired embossing temperature ; roller 2 is, however, kept at room temperature. The mould is a nickel template manufactured by plating nickel-based micro patterns (height : 50 $mu$m) on a nickel film (thickness : 70 $mu$m) ; the substrate for the roller embossing is a multilayered Heraeus Heralock HL 2000 ceramic green composite. Comparing with the conventional simultaneous embossing, the advantages of roller embossing include : (1) low embossing force ; (2) easiness of demoulding ; (3) localized area in contact with heater ; and etc. We have demonstrated the capability of large area roller embossing with a panel size of 150mmx 150mm on the mentioned substrate. We have explored and confirmed the impact of parameters (feed speed, temperature of roller and applied pressure) to the pattern quality of roller embossing. Furthermore, under the optimized process parameters, we characterized the variations of pattern dimension over the panel area, and calculated a scaling factor in order to make the panel compatible with other processes. Figure 2 shows the embossed patterns on a 150mmx 150mm green ceramic panel.
In large area micro hot embossing, the process temperature plays a critical role to both the local fidelity of microstructure formation and global uniformity. The significance of low temperature hot embossing is to improve global flatness of embossed devices. This paper reports on experimental studies of polymer deformation and relaxation in micro embossing when the process temperatures are below or near its glass transition temperature (Tg). In this investigation, an indentation system and a micro embosser were used to investigate the relationship of microstructure formation versus process temperature and load pressure. The depth of indentation was controlled and the load force at a certain indentation depth was measured. Experiments were carried out using 1 mm thick PMMA films with the process temperature ranging from Tg-55 degrees C to Tg +20 degrees C. The embossed structures included a single micro cavity and groups of micro cavity arrays. It was found that at temperature of Tg-55 degrees C, elastic deformation dominated the formation of microstructures and significant relaxation happened after embossing. From Tg-20 degrees C to Tg, plastic deformation dominated polymer deformation, and permanent cavities could be formed on PMMA substrates without obvious relaxation. However, the formation of protrusive structures as micro pillars was not complete since there was little polymer flow. With an increase in process temperature, microstructure could be formed under lower loading pressure. Considering the fidelity of a single microstructure and global flatness of embossed substrates, micro hot embossing at a low process temperature, but with good fidelity, should be preferred.
Multilayered ceramic substrates with embedded micro patterns are becoming increasingly important, for example, in harsh environment electronics and microfluidic devices. Fabrication of these embedded micro patterns, such as micro channels, cavities and vias, is a challenge. This study focuses on the process of patterning micro features on ceramic green substrates using micro embossing. A ceramic green tape that possessed near-zero shrinkage in the x-y plane was used, six layers of which were laminated as the embossing substrate. The process parameters that impact on the pattern fidelity were investigated and optimized in this study. Micro features with line-width as small as several micrometers were formed on the ceramic green substrates. The dynamic thermo-mechanical analysis indicated that extending the holding time at certain temperature range would harden the green substrates with little effect on improving the embossing fidelity. Ceramic substrates with embossed micro patterns were obtain d after co-firing. The embedded micro channels were also obtained by laminating the green tapes on the embossed substrates.
Micro-indentation test with a micro flat-end cone indenter was employed to simulate micro embossing process and investigate the thermo-mechanical response of ceramic green substrates. The laminated low temperature co-fired ceramic green tapes were used as the testing material ; the correlations of indentation depth versus applied force and applied stress at the temperatures of 25 degrees C and 75degrees C were studied. The results showed that permanent indentation cavities could be formed at temperatures ranging from 25 degrees C to 75 degrees C, and the depth of cavities created was applied force, temperature and dwell time dependent. Creep occurred and made a larger contribution to the plastic deformation at elevated temperatures and high peak loads. There was instantaneous recovery during the unloading and retarded recovery in the first day after indentation. There was no significant pile-up due to material flow observed under compression at the temperature up to 75 degrees C. The plastic deformation was the main cause for formation of cavity on the ceramic green substrate under compression. The results can be used as a guideline for embossing ceramic green substrates.
Grating-based X-ray phase-contrast interferometry has a high application impact in material science and medicine for imaging of weakly absorbing (low Z) materials and soft tissues. For the absorbing gratings, casting of highly x-ray absorbing metals, such as Au and Pb alloys, has proven to be a viable way to generate large area periodic high aspect ratio microstructures. In this paper, we review the grating fabrication strategy with a special focus on a novel approach of casting low temperature melting alloys (Au-Sn and Pbbased alloy) into Si grating templates using hot embossing. The process, similar to nanoimprint lithography, requires particular adjusting efforts of process parameters as a function of the metal alloy and the grating feature size. The transition between solid and liquid state depends on the alloy phase diagram, the applied pressure can damage the high aspect ratio Si lamellas and the microstructure of the solid metal can affect the grating structure. We demonstrate that metal casting by hot embossing can be used to fabricate gratings on large area (up to 70x70 mm2) with aspect ratio up to 50:1 and pitch in the range of 1-20 {mu}m.