Continuous infrared-assisted double-sided roll-to-roll embossing of flexible polymer substrates.

This article reports a novel infrared (IR)-assisted roll-to-roll embossing method, which enables the replication of microfeatures onto the surfaces of flexible polymer substrates. An IR-assisted roll-to-roll embossing facility was designed and built in our laboratory especially for this study. Metallic rollers bearing micropatterns of two different feature sizes, namely 150 and 20 μm in depth, were employed. The former one was prepared by microelectric discharge machining the roller, whereas the latter was fabricated by electroplating a thin layer of nickel on the surface of the roller, followed by a diamond turning process to create the microstructures. The embossing facility was used to replicate the microstructure onto polyethylene terephthalate and polycarbonate films in the experiments. During roller embossing, the IR radiation shed on the rollers, and the energy was converted into heat to melt the polymer substrates and to replicate the microstructures. The influence of various processing parameters on the replicability of microfeatures was investigated. Under the proper processing conditions, double-sided flexible polymer substrates with microstructures could be successfully fabricated. The proposed method shows great potential for fabrication of micro-optical components due to its simplicity and versatility. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]