A novel electromagnetism-assisted imprinting technology to replicate microstructures onto a large-area curved surface using a flexible magnetic mold

作者：Weng Y J; Weng Y C; Yang S Y^*; Wong J L

来源：Polymers for Advanced Technologies, 2009, 20(2): 92-97.

DOI：10.1002/pat.1238

• magnetic flexible mold imprinting
• curved surface imprinting
• conformal contact
• multi-stage compounded casting
• open imprinting technology

Replication of microstructures from a mold onto a curved surface is difficult. The conformal contact between the mold and the substrate has to be ensured. The present study proposes an innovative mechanism, which employs an electromagnetic disk to provide magnetic force and a PDMS flexible mold with a layer compounded magnetic powder. This mechanism provides not only the gradual contact from center to edge to avoid air entrapment but also conformal contact between the mold and the substrate during the imprinting operation. A system based on this electromagnetic soft imprinting technology has been implemented, and imprinting to replicate microstructures from the mold onto a curved surface has been carried out. The results reveal that the PDMS magnetic mold and the electromagnetic disk-controlled magnetic force can successfully perform the imprinting and accurately replicate the microstructures onto the large-area, curved surface glass. The PDMS flexible magnetic mold incorporated with the magnetic disk can be employed to achieve the conformal contact between the mold and the substrate. In addition, due to the low surface free energy of the PDMS, the de-molding without sticking can be easily accomplished.

• 出版日期2009-2