• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.191-194
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• 2007

In hot embossing lithography which has shown to be a good method to fabricate polymeric patterns for IT and bio components, it is very important to determine the proper process conditions of pressure, temperature, and time. It is also a key factor for predicting the optical properties of final product to calculate residual stress distribution after the embossing process. Therefore, to design the optimum process with right conditions, the ability to predict viscoelastic behavior of polymer during and after the hot embossing process is required. The objective of the present investigation is to establish simulation technique based on constitutive modeling of polymer with experiments. To analyze deformation behavior of viscoelastic polymer, the large strain material properties were obtained from quasi-static compression tests at different strain rates and temperatures and also stress relaxation tests were executed. With this viscoelastic material model, finite element simulation of hot embossing was executed and stress distribution is obtained. Proper process pressure is very important to predict the defect and incomplete filling.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.199-203
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• 2017

Hot embossing techniques are used to engrave patterns on plastic substrates. Roll based hot embossing uses a heated roll for a continuous process. A heated roll with relief patterns is impressed on a preheated plastic substrate. Then, the substrate is cooled down quickly to prevent thermal shrinkage. The roll speed is normally very slow to ensure substrate temperature increase up to the glass transition temperature. In this paper, we propose a noncontact preheating technique using focused infrared light. The infrared light is focused as a line beam on a plastic substrate using an elliptical mirror just before entering the hot embossing roll. The mid range infrared light efficiently raises the substrate temperature. For preliminary tests, substrate deformation and temperature changes were monitored according to substrate speed. The experiments show that the proposed technique is a good possibility for high speed hot embossing.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.7 s.250
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• pp.773-778
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• 2006

High-aspect-ratio nano-hair or nano-pillar arrays have great potential in a variety of applications. In this study, we present a simple and cost-effective replication method of high-aspect-ratio polymer nano-hair arrays. Highly ordered nano-porous AAO (anodic aluminum oxide) template was utilized as a reusable nano-mold insert. The AAO nano-mold insert fabricated by the two-step anodization process in this study had close- packed straight nano-pores, which enabled us to replicate densely arranged nano-hairs. The diameter, depth and pore spacing of the nano-pores in the fabricated AAO nano-mold insert were about 200nm, $1{\mu}m$ and 450nm, respectively. For the replication of polymer nano-hair arrays, a UV nano embossing process was applied as a mass production method. The UV nano embossing machine was developed by our group for the purpose of replicating nano-structures by means of non-transparent nano-mold inserts. Densely arranged high-aspect-ratio nano-hair arrays have been successfully manufactured by means of the UV nano embossing process with the AAO nano-mold insert under the optimum processing condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1493-1496
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• 2005

In this paper, we describe a simple, precise and low cost method of fabricating PDMS stamp for UV embossing. It is important to improve the replication quality of stamp because the accuracy of fabricated structure is related to that of the stamp in UV embossing. The PDMS stamp has been fabricated by the replica molding technology with ultrasonic vibration to eliminate micro-air bubbles during the fabrication process of PDMS stamp. Also, this fabrication to use ultrasonic vibration promotes PDMS solution to fill into micro channel and edge parts. We report the fabrication of an optical core using UV embossing with fabricated PDMS stamp. This fabricated core is $7\;\mu{m}\;at\;depth,\;6\;\mu{m}\;at\;width.\;This\;measured\;value\;has\;the\;difference\;below\;1\;\mu{m}$compared to the original stamp. The surface roughness of core is about 14 nm root mean square. This is satisfactory value to use low-loss optical waveguide. Our successful demonstration of precise replica technology presents an alternative approach for the stamp of UV embossing.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.223-227
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• 2002

Polymeric multi-mode optical waveguides were fabricated for parallel optical interconnection. Waveguide structures were molded by a Ni mold master using a hot embossing technique. The Ni mold master was manufactured by LIGA process. Multimode optical waveguides with a 48$\times$47 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$$^2$cross-section were produced by a simple two-step process. The propagation losses of the multimode waveguide measured at 0.85 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and 1.3 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ wavelengths were 0.38 dB/cm and 0.66 dB/cm, respectively.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.16 no.4 s.94
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• pp.282-287
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• 2007

Hot embossing, one of Nanoimprint Lithography(NIL) techniques, has been getting attention as an alternative candidate of next generation patterning technologies by the advantages of simplicity and low cost compared to conventional photolithographies. A typical hot embossing usually, however, takes more than ten minutes for one cycle of the process because of a long thermal cycling. Over the last few years a number of studies have been made to reduce the cycle time for hot embossing or similar patterning processes. The target of this research is to develop an induction heating apparatus for heating a metallic micro patterning mold at very high speed with the large-area uniformity of temperature distribution. It was found that a 0.5 mm-thick nickel mold can be heated from $25^{\circ}C\;to\;150^{\circ}C$ within 1.5 seconds with the temperature variation of ${\pm}5^{\circ}C$ in 4-inch diameter area, using the induction heating apparatus.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.122-125
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• 2005

A polymer-based planar-lightwave-circuit-type variable optical attenuator (VOA) was fabricated using a hot embossing process. With an optimized one-step embossing process, forty micro-channels for the guidance of light were defined on a polymer thin film with an accuracy of ${\pm}0.5{\mu}m$. The fabricated polymeric thermo-optic VOA shows 30 dB attenuation with 110 mW electrical input power at $1.55{\mu}m$. The rise and fall times are less than 5 ms.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.199-204
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• 2007

Hot embossing, one of Nanoimprint Lithography(NIL) techniques, has been getting attention as an alternative candidate of next generation patterning technologies by the advantages of simplicity and low cost compared to conventional photolithographies. A typical hot embossing usually, however, takes more than ten minutes for one cycle of the process because of a long thermal cycling. Over the last few years a number of studies have been made to reduce the cycle time for hot embossing or similar patterning processes. The target of this research is to develop an induction heating apparatus for heating a metallic micro patterning mold at very high speed with the large-area uniformity of temperature distribution. It was found that a 0.5 mm-thick nickel mold can be heated from $25^{\circ}C$ to $150^{\circ}C$ within 1.5 seconds with the temperature variation of ${\pm}5^{\circ}C$ in 4-inch diameter area, using the induction heating apparatus.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1269-1272
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• 2005

Sandwich structures, which are composed of thick core between two thin faces, are commonly used in many engineering applications because they combine high stiffness and strength with low weight. In this research, we have investigated the embossing configuration at the sheet metal shape through research with regard to the construction that the hardness and stiffness are excellent, and formability is advantage as inner structure. Through the FLD analysis according to the pattern changes, we have confirmed the forming possibility and variation of the aspect thickness. Also, we have fabricated the embossing press mold according to the pattern changes, and obtained the embossing inner structure the forming experiments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1140-1144
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• 2005

A plastic-based CE (capillary electrophoresis) microchip was fabricated by hot embossing process. A Si mold was made by wet etching process and a PMMA wafer was cut off from 1mm thick PMMA sheet. A micro-channel structure on PMMA substrate was produced by hot embossing process using the Si mold and the PMMA wafer. A vacuum assisted thermal bonding procedure was employed to seal an imprinted PMMA wafer and a blank PMMA wafer. The results of microscopic cross sectional images showed dimensions of channels were well preserved during thermal bonding process. In our procedure, the deformation amount of bonding process was below 1%. The entire fabrication process may be very useful for plastic based microchip systems.