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The display industries recently demand new microscale dot-type patterns for thinner and brighter displays with high energy efficiency, which are randomly distributed with irregular separation distances and have uniform optical characteristics. We developed a new program to generate the coordinates of the controlled microscale random patterns considering their diameter and the distance to the nearest pattern for preventing overlap of each pattern. Then the microscale random patterns were machined on a metal mold using the indentation machining which is a simple and low-cost machining method. We decreased the total machining time by the optimization of machining order of the random patterns. The coordinates, the diameter and the fill-factor of the machined patterns by the indentation machining were much consistent to the designed values. The controlled microscale random patterns had uniform optical characteristics over all areas of the manufactured optical film. Moreover, if optical films have the same diameters and fill-factor, they showed the same optical characteristics even they have totally different coordinates of random microscale patterns. This technology is expected to reduce the number of the optical films and the light sources in the display, which can save much energies.

Microwave absorbers using conductive ink are generally fabricated by printing an array pattern on a substrate to generate electromagnetic fields. However, screen printing processes are difficult to vary the sheet resistance values for different regions of the pattern on the same layer, because the printing process deposits materials at the same height over the entire surface of substrate. In this study, a promising manufacturing process was suggested for engraved resistive double square loop arrays with ultra-wide bandwidth microwave. The developed manufacturing process consists of a micro-end-milling, inking, and planing processes. A 144-number of double square loop array was precisely machined on a polymethyl methacrylate workpiece with the micro-end-milling process. After engraving array structures, the machined surface was completely covered with the developed conductive carbon ink with a sheet resistance of 15 Ω/sq. It was cured at room temperature. Excluding the ink that filled the machined double square loop array, overflowed ink was removed with the planing process to achieve full filled and isolated resistive array patterns. The fabricated microwave absorber showed a small radar cross-section with reflectance less than − 10 dB in the frequency band range of 8.0–14.6 GHz.

A recent study of inertial microfluidics within nonrectangular cross-section channels showed that the inertial focusing positions changes with cross-sectional shapes; therefore, the cross-sectional shape can be a useful control parameter for microfluidic particle manipulations. Here, we conducted detail investigation on unique focusing position shift phenomena, which occurs strongly in channels with the cross-sectional shape of the isosceles right triangle. The top focusing positions shift along the channel walls to the direction away from the apex with increasing Reynolds number and decreasing particle size. A larger particle with its center further away from the side walls experiences shear gradient lift toward the apex, which leads to an opposite result with changes of Reynolds and particle size. The focusing position shift and the subsequent stabilization of corner focusing lead to changes in the number of focusing positions, which enables a novel method for microparticle separations with high efficiency (95%) and resolution (2 μm). The separation method based on equilibrium focusing; therefore, the operation is simple and no complex separation optimization is needed. Moreover, the separation threshold can be easily modulated with flow rate adjustment. Rare cell separation from blood cell was successfully demonstrated with spiked MCF-7 cells in blood by achieving the yield of ∼95% and the throughput of ∼10

Nano patterns on single-crystal silicon are generally manufactured by photolithography, which can form limited cross-sectional shapes such as U-shapes or rectangular channels. Though V-shaped patterns are widely used in the optical industries because they concentrate light, they are challenging to manufacture by conventional photolithography. Mechanical machining is useful in manufacturing various kinds of cross-sectional shapes including V-shapes with various apex angles, but is hard to apply to single-crystal silicon due to its brittle fracture. Here we suggest a novel way of mechanical machining of single-crystal silicon that suppresses brittle fracture below the critical point (the ductile-brittle transition point) as determined by nano-scratch testing. We find that the first drop point of the cutting force corresponds to a critical point and define the critical forces as the thrust force and the cutting force at the critical point. The critical forces are varied by the applied force per unit length, which is the possibility that the cutting tool interacts with mechanically weak atomic bonds. When the applied force per unit length is zero (a general condition of mechanical machining), the cutting speed does not affect the variation of the critical forces or the quality of the machined pattern. Based on analysis of the experimental results, we suggest that the single-crystal silicon can be mechanically machined without brittle fracture at high cutting speed if the thrust force is smaller than the critical force of zero applied force per unit length.

While the indentation method is an excellent way to evaluate the mechanical properties of various sizes of materials, from the nano-scale to the macro-scale, its applications have been limited to measuring mechanical properties. In this study we propose a new application of the dynamic indentation method, in an indentation machining technology for mass-production. The core idea is that the array of residual indentations generated by dynamic indentation testing can be used to fabricate a lens array suitable for thinner and brighter displays. We developed an advanced system from a dynamic indentation system, whose maximum speed and maximum specimen size were about 10Hz and 250 mm*250 mm, respectively. Using dual actuating heads this system was used to produce arrays of lenses having depths of 1 μm to 6 mm. Pile-up is a critical reason why indentation machining technology had been not widely used in display industries. Since lower pile-up is observed in more ductile copper-based metals, we increased the annealing time of the metal molds to reduce the amount of pile-up. Then, following a quantitative analysis of the annealing heat treatment and resulting amount of pile-up, a lens array was successfully machined on a metal mold fabricated by the developed system. The machined metal mold was used to manufacture optical plates for a lens array. The results verified that the indentation machining technology proposed in this study, based on the dynamic indentation method, can be applied for the manufacturing of optical components for better displays.

We consider inertial focusing of particles in channels with triangular cross sections. The number and the location of inertial focusing positions in isosceles triangular channels can change with varying blockage ratios (a/H) and Reynolds numbers (Re). In triangular channels, asymmetric velocity gradient induced by the sloped sidewalls leads to changes in the direction and the strength of the inertial lift forces. Therefore, varying the configuration (specifically, angle) of the triangular cross section is expected to lead to a better understanding of the nature of the inertial lift forces. We fabricated triangular microchannels with various apex angles using channel molds that were shaped by a planing process, which provides precise apex angles and sharp corners. The focusing position shift was found to be affected by the channel cross section, as expected. It was determined that the direction of the focusing position shift can be reversed depending on whether the vertex is acute or obtuse. More interestingly, corner focusing modes and splitting of the corner focusing were observed with increasing Re, which could explain the origin of the inertial focusing position changes in triangular channels. We conducted fluid dynamic simulations to create force maps under various conditions. These force maps were analyzed to identify the basins of attraction of various attractors and pinpoint focusing locations using linear stability analysis. Calculating the relative sizes of the basins of attractions and exhaustively identifying the focusing positions, which are very difficult to investigate experimentally, provided us a better understanding of trends in the focusing mechanism.

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) enables the reconstruction of the three-dimensional (3D) refractive-index (RI) distribution of a biological cell, which provides invaluable information for cellular and subcellular structures in a non-invasive manner. However, ODT suffers from an inferior axial resolution, due to the limited accessible angles imposed by the numerical aperture of the objective lens. In this study, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach to enhance the 3D reconstruction performance in ODT. By employing trapezoidal micromirrors, side scattered signals from the sample are measured for various side plane-wave-illumination angles. By combining the side scattered fields with the forward scattered fields, the axial resolution and 3D image quality of ODT are improved, without changing optical instruments. The feasibility and applicability of the proposed method are demonstrated by reconstructing the 3D RI distribution of a red blood cell and HeLa cells in hydrogel. We also present systematic analyses of the improved 3D imaging performance using numerical simulations and experimental measurements for the 3D transfer function, a point object, and a microsphere. The analyses demonstrate an improved axial resolution of 0.31 μm, 4.8 times smaller than that of the conventional method. The proposed method enables the non-invasive and accurate 3D imaging of 3D cultured cells, which is crucial for cell biology studies.

The use of an optical plate to enhance light efficiency of LED systems was suggested. The optical plate technology indicates that polymeric optical plates having optical patterns on themselves are placed on LED systems. We designed and manufactured an optical plate that enhance light efficiency, and verified its optical characteristics in this study. The shape and the size of the spherical lens patterns were designed based on the lens formula including the refraction indices of air and PMMA, thickness of the optical component and the optical distance. To manufacture the optical plate having the designed spherical lens patterns, a metal mold was machined by ultra-fine punching machining technology. Using the ultra-fine punching machining system, spherical lens patterns with 0.45 mm in height, 1.15 mm in diameter were successfully machined on the top of a mold of 90 * 60 mm2 size. Using the machined mold and transparent PMMA, an optical plate with the spherical lens patterns was molded by injection molding technology. The optical plate was placed on the LED system, and the luminance was measured with and without the optical plate, and as a result the average and the maximum intensity increased by 1.4 times and 1.3 times respectively.

The polarization anomaly refers to the polarization transition from longitudinal to shear modes along an equi-frequency contour of the same branch, which occurs only in some anisotropic elastic media, but the lack of natural materials exhibiting desired anisotropy makes its utilization impossible for potential novel applications. In this paper, we present a unique, non-resonant type elastic metamaterial made of off-centered, double-slit unit cells. We show that its wave polarization characteristics that determine the desired anomalous polarization for a certain application are tailorable. As an application, a mode converting wedge that transforms pure longitudinal into pure shear modes is designed by the proposed metamaterial. The physics involved in the mode conversion is investigated by simulations and experiments.

A COB(chip-on-board) LED(light emitting diode) system has advantages such as low cost and good heat dissipation. LED chips are bonded on PCB(printed circuit board) directly without packaging process in case of COB LED systems. Dome lenses made of polymeric resin are generally covered on the bonded LED chips by air dispensing for preventing mechanical damage and making white light. However, it is hard to control the shape of dome lenses precisely due to viscosity of the polymeric resin. We analyzed the relationship of the shape of dome lenses and experimental conditions of the air dispensing in this study. We introduced a new parameter, air pressure * dispensing time, whose physical meaning is impulse per unit area, and obtained much clear relationship of dispensing parameters and shape parameters of the dome lens. This relationship was similar to viscoelastic behavior. The aspect ratio (height over diameter) was increased as the new parameter increased, and was converged to a certain value. The maximum aspect ratio could be calculated by Young’s equation of contact angle.

A transparent poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) optical micro-pyramid array-pattern is designed and fabricated using an injection modeling technique. The device`s optical characteristics are tested and analyzed theoretically. In the optical pattern generated using the fabricated PMMA pattern, the components, due to not only refraction but also diffraction, are observed simultaneously. Wave optic modeling and analysis reveals that the energy ratio between the diffraction and refraction in the optical pattern are dependent on the critical dimension of the optical pattern such that the refraction and diffraction tend to be directly and inversely proportional to the pattern dimension, respectively.

The specular hologram is one type of hologram, and it consists of many arcs. They are very easy to fabricate and can even be machined by hand and a compass. In this study, we designed two squares having different depths and consisting of many arcs, after which we machined the arcs using end-mill technology. The width of the machined arcs showed high repeatability. Moving tracks were observed on the bottom surface, and top burrs were noted. In spite of them, the phenomenon of the specular hologram was observed when an observer and a light source stood on the same side. The two squares seemed to have different depths when they were observed from the left and right directions. In this study, it was verified that a specular hologram can be manufactured by end-mill technology. Key Words : End-mill(엔드밀), Specular Hologram(스페큘러 홀로그램), Machining(가공), Arc(호) * Dept. of Nano Manufacturing Technology, KIMM # Corresponding Author : Dept. of Nano Manufacturing Technology, KIMM E-mail : jeonec@kimm.re.kr** Dept. of Nano-Mechatronics, UST Korea*** School of Elec. and Info. Eng., Korea Univ.**** School of Mechanical Eng., Pusan National Univ.

Ultra-fine planing and micro punching are separately used for improving surface roughness and machining dot patterns, respectively, of metal molds. If these separate machining processes are applied for machining of identical molds, there could be an aligning mismatch between the machine tool and the mold. A hybrid machining system combining ultra-fine planing and micro punching was newly developed in this study in order to solve this mismatch; hybrid process technology was also developed for machining dot patterns on a mirror surface of a metal mold. The hybrid machining system has X, Y, and Z axes, and a cam axis for ultra-fine planing. The cam axis and attachable and removable solenoid actuators for micro punching can make large and small sizes of dot patterns, respectively. Ultra-fine planing was applied in the first place to improve the surface roughness of a metal mold; the measured surface roughness was about 20nm. Then, micro punching was applied to machine dot patterns on the same mold. It was possible to control the diameter of the dot patterns by changing the input voltage of the solenoid actuator. Before machining, severe inhomogeneous plastic deformation around the machined dot patterns was also removed by annealing heat treatment. Therefore, it was verified that metal molds with dots patterns for optical products can be machined using a hybrid machining system and the hybrid process technology developed in this study.

A new concept, ‘hybrid LED package system (HLP system)’, is proposed as a simpler LED manufacturing process that unifies two steps of the process, the package step and the module step. Moreover, the HLP system can increase optical efficiency by virtue of its integrated optical pattern. A square pyramidal pattern was selected as the basic shape of the pattern of the HLP system. Four shape parameters of the HLP system were selected for optimizing the system. Nine cases of optical simulations organized according to the Taguchi method were performed using LightTools, and the optimum values of the parameters were determined by an SN ratio analysis. Using the optimum values, 28% higher illuminance and 32% higher luminance were predicted simultaneosly compared to the values without the integrated optical pattern. The optimum square pyramidal pattern was machined on a metal mold using an ultra-fine planer and a 90 degree angle diamond tool which would be used as a mold for manufacturing the optimized integrated optical pattern of the HLP system. The exact shape of the square pyramidal pattern with a height of 25 µm and a 90 degree angle was obtained. This study verified that the micro machined mold for manufacturing an optimized integrated optical pattern could be machined accurately, and finally the HLP system with the integrated optical pattern had higher uniform and brighter light distribution.