Heat generation and distribution in the ultrasonic hot embossing process

Microstructures are fabricated from polymer foils in seconds by a new process called ultrasonic hot embossing. This process allows to realize new designs within a day and is suitable both for large- and small-scale production. The required investment costs are in the order of some 10,000 ź. In this paper, heat generation and distribution in ultrasonic hot embossing is investigated with piezo-electric and pyro-electric foils from the polymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) placed into a stack of polymer layers. This way, the influence of pre-structures on and powders between polymer layers is revealed.