COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF HOT EMBOSSED MICRO STRUCTURES FABRICATED BY LABORATORY AND COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENTS

Hot embossed microstructures fabricated by laboratory and commercial e nvironments have been studied. The laboratory process uses silicon wit h micropyramid patterns as the mold insert. Fine replication by using Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA) has been achieved. The commercial proce ss uses electroplated nickel as the mold insert. Polyvinyl Chloride (P VC), which has a lower glass transition point than PMMA, has been used as the raw material. Fabrication results show that the laboratory pro cess, although taking about 2 hours long per run, can successfully rep licate microstructures. The commercial process which takes only 1 minu te per run may be fine tuned for good replication. Atomic Force Micros cope (AFM) has been used to analyze the fabricated microstructures. It is found that the root mean square (r.m.s.) roughness of PMMA is abou t 4 nm and that of PVC is about 10-15 nm. Defects including voids and bumps on both PMMA and PVC films have been found.