• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.15 no.1 s.82
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• pp.34-41
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• 2006

Microlens arrays were fabricated by a modified LIGA process composed of the exposure of a PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) sheet to deep x-rays and subsequent thermal treatment. A successful modeling and analyses for microlens formation were presented according to the experimental procedure. A nickel mold insert was fabricated by the nickel electroforming process on the PMMA microlens arrays fabricated by the modified LIGA process. For the replication of microlens arrays having various diameters with different foci on the same substrate, both hot embossing and microinjection molding processes have been successfully utilized with the fabricated mold insert. Replicated microlenses showed very good surface roughness with the order of 1 nm. The focal lengths of the injection molded microlenses were successfully estimated theoretically and also measured experimentally.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.23-28
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• 2005

Microlens arrays were fabricated using a modified LIGA process based on the exposure of a PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) sheet to deep x-rays and subsequent thermal treatment. A successful modeling and analyses for microlens formation were presented according to the experimental procedure. A nickel mold insert was fabricated by the nickel electroforming process on the PMMA microlens arrays fabricated by the modified LIGA process. For the replication of microlens arrays having various diameters with different foci on the same substrate, the hot embossing and the microinjection molding processes have been successfully utilized with the fabricated mold insert. Fabricated microlenses showed good surface roughness than the mold insert. The focal lengths of the injection molded microlenses were successfully measured experimentally and also estimated theoretically.

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.07a
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• pp.70-71
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• 2004

Back light unit(BLU) using a microlens fabricated by the modified LIGA process for the liquid crystal display(LCD) is proposed, and some experimental results are presented. To realize the back light unit using microlens pattern, LIGA and reflow process are used.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1923-1930
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• 2002

In this paper, we present modeling and simulation of microlens formation by means of a deep X-ray lithography followed by a thermal treatment of a PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) sheet. According to this modeling, X-ray irradiation causes the decrease of molecular weight of PMMA, which in turn decreases the glass transition temperature and consequently causes a net volume increase during the thermal cycle resulting in a swollen microlens. In this modeling, the free volume theory including the relaxation process during the cooling process was considered. The simulation results indicate that the modeling in this study is able to predict the fabricated microlens shapes and the variation pattern of the maximum heights of microlens which depends on the conditions of the thermal treatment. The prediction model could be applied to optimization of microlens fabrication process and to designing a micro mold insert for micromolding processes.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.171-176
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• 2007

LCD-BLU (Liquid Crystal Display-Back Light Unit) of medium size is usually manufactured by forming numerous dots with $50{\sim}300\;{\mu}m$ in diameter by etching process and V-grove shape with $50\;{\mu}m$ in height by mechanical cutting process. However, the surface of the etched dots is very rough due to the characteristics of the etching process and V-cutting needs rather high cost. Instead of existing optical pattern made by etching and mechanical cutting, 3-dimensional continuous micro-lens of $200\;{\mu}m$ in diameter was applied in the present study. The continuous micro-lens pattern fabricated by modified LIGA with thermal reflow process was tested to this new optical design of LGP. The manufacturing process using LIGA-reflow is made up of three stages as follows: (i) the stage of lithography, (ii) the stage of thermal reflow process and (iii) the stage of electroplating. The continuous micro-lens patterned LGP was fabricated with injection molding and its test results showed the possibility of commercial use in the future.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.2450-2456
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• 2002

Microlenses and microlens arrays are fabricated using a novel fabrication technology based on the exposure of a resist (usually PMMA) to deep X-rays and subsequent thermal treatment. The fabrication technology is very simple and produces microlenses and microlens arrays with good surface roughness (less than 1 nm). The molecular weight and glass transition temperature of PMMA is reduced when it is irradiated with deep X-rays. The microlenses is produced through the effects of volume change, surface tension, and reflow during thermal treatment of irradiated PMMA. The geometry of the microlens is determined by parameters such as the X-ray dose applied to the PMMA, the diameter of the microlens, along with the heating temperature, heating time, and cooling rate in the thermal treatment. Microlenses are produced with diameters ranging from 30 to 1500 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. The modified LIGA process is used not only to construct hemispherical microlenses but also structures that are rectangular-shaped, star-shaped, etc.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.165-169
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• 2007

The light guide plate (LGP) of LCD-BLU (Liquid Crystal Display-Back Light Unit) is usually manufactured by forming numerous dots by etching process. However, the surface of those etched dots of LGP is very rough due to the characteristics of etching process, so that its light loss is relatively high due to the dispersion of light. Accordingly, there is a limit in raising the luminance of LCD-BLU. In order to overcome the limit of current etched-dot patterned LGP, micro-lens pattern was tested to investigate the possibility of replacing etched pattern in the present study. The micro-lens pattern fabricated by the modified LiGA with thermal reflow process was applied to the optical design of LGP. The attention was paid to the effects of different optical pattern type (i.e. etched dot, micro-lens). Finally, the micro-lens patterned LGP showed better optical qualities than the one made by the etched-dot patterned LGP in luminance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.465-469
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• 2003

Microlens arrays were fabricated using a novel fabrication technology based on the exposure of a PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) sheet to deep X-rays and subsequent thermal treatment. X-ray irradiation causes the decrease of molecular weight of PMMA, which in turn decreases the glass transition temperature and consequently causes a net volume increase during the thermal cycle resulting in a swollen microlens. A new physical modeling and analyses for microlens formation were presented according to experimental procedure. A simple analysis based on the new model is found to be capable of predicting the shapes of microlens which depend on the thermal treatment. For the replication of microlens arrays having various diameters with different foci on the same surface, the hot embossing and the microinjection molding processes has been successfully utilized with a mold insert that is fabricated by Ni-electroplating based on a PMMA microstructure of microlenses. Fabricated microlenses showed good surface roughness with the order of 1 nm.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1517-1523
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• 2003

Deep X-ray lithography (DXRL), a fabrication method for the production of microstructures with a high aspect ratio, plays an important role in the subsequent electroplanting process. However, secondary radiation is generated during X-ray exposure and damages the resist adhesion to the metal layer. To solve adhesion problems, we modified the conventional DXRL process, changing the sequence of polymer adhesion in DXRL process. With optimized X-ray exposure and development conditions based on a calculated and modified X-ray power spectrum, we fabricated various polymer microstructures and achieved a maximum aspect ratio of 40.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.290-295
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• 2004

Mircolens and microlens V-groove are realized using a novel fabrication technology based on the exposure of a resist, usually PMMA, to deep X-rays and subsequent thermal treatment and inclined deep X-ray lithography, respectively. The fabrication technology is very simple and produces microlenses and microlens V-groove with good surface roughness of several nm. The molecular weight and glass transition temperature of PMMA is reduced when it is irradiated with deep X-rays. The microlenses were produced through the effects of volume change, surface tension, and reflow during thermal treatment of irradiated PMMA. Microlenses were produced with diameters ranging from 30 to $1500\mu\textrm{m}$. The surface X-ray mask is also fabricated to realize microlens arrays on PMMA sheet with a large area. The size of the micro V-groove is fabricated in the range of 12~$60\mu\textrm{m}$.