Development of reel-to-reel process system for roller-imprint on plastic fibers

Mekaru, Harutaka; Ohtomo, Akihiro; Takagi, Hideki; Kokubo, Mitsunori; Okuno, Hiroshi G.

doi:10.1016/j.mee.2010.12.043

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Therefore, the patterning of plastic film can be achieved in low cost and high throughput via the R2R NIL process. Many studies have been devoted to develop a rapid R2R NIL process [75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86]. A general schematic illustration of R2R NIL process is shown in Fig.…”

Section: Roll-to-roll Nilmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mekaru et al demonstrated a new-type roller NIL system to transfer designed patterns from a plane mold onto the curved surface of a plastic fiber at high throughput (Fig. 15a) [78]. In this system, a plastic fiber was placed between two plane molds and rolls under the traction force of the two sliding plane molds traveling in opposite directions.…”

Section: Roll-to-roll Nilmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nanoimprint technology for patterning functional materials and its applications

Chen

2015

Microelectronic Engineering

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Section: Roll-to-roll Nilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Roll-to-roll Nilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanoimprint technology for patterning functional materials and its applications

Chen

2015

Microelectronic Engineering

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“…16 The system was essentially a thermal imprint device that comprised two sliding planar molds, and a reel-to-reel feeder designed to automatically send the fiber at preset intervals. In a reel-to-reel feeder, the two ends of a fiber are rolled in a sending reel station and a winding reel station, as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Imprinting On Pof Using a Sliding Planar Moldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft patterning on cylindrical surface of plastic optical fiber

Mekaru

Takagi

Ohtomo

et al. 2011

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phen

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The authors have developed a novel thermal imprinting method to fabricate microstructures on the surface of plastic optical fibers (POFs) without causing any damage to them. In conventional thermal nanoimprinting using a planar mold, the shape of the molding material is in the form of a film spread on a planar substrate, or the molding material is used in its bulk form. In the case of any 3-dimensional shaped molding material such as in the case of a fiber, the shape becomes susceptible to a certain degree of damage caused by the planar mold. In order to address this problem, we have designed a thermal imprinting method using sliding planar molds. A fiber tightly stretched between two reel stations (for sending and winding of the fiber) is sandwiched between two planar molds facing each other. The fiber is then rolled against the pattern sides of the two planar molds while the rolling motion of the fiber remains synchronized with the sliding motion of the planar molds. The problem of twists in the fiber caused by the sliding planar molds was solved by dynamically rotating the two reel stations to match the rotation of the fiber. To demonstrate this technology, we employed a special electroformed-Ni mold with a mirror image of a string of characters forming the word “MACROBEANS” engraved in the form of a lattice, where the individual characters were composed of diffraction grating structures with 1 and 2 μm of linewidths. Using this mold, the cylindrical surface of a POF made of a 240-μm-diameter polymethyl methacrylate core with a coating of a 5-μm-thick fluoroplastic cladding was thermal-imprinted. From the observation of the imprinted patterns on the POFs, it was verified that the cylindrical surface was patterned without causing any damage to the POF. The height of the convex mold pattern was 1.1 μm, and the depth of the concave imprinted pattern was approximately 1.0 μm.

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“…Patterns of a coil and a comb actuator of a plane mold were imprinted onto the cylindrical surface of a Teflon-PFA inlet tube or POF by the horizontal sliding motion of the plane mold. [13][14][15] However, these techniques are quite different from the techniques used in photolithography and face serious difficulties in stitching patterns. We then tried processing a precise spiral structure by focused-ion beam (FIB) 16) etching of a processing area that was larger than that of electron-beam lithography.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterning of Spiral Structure on Optical Fiber by Focused-Ion-Beam Etching

Mekaru

Yano

2012

Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.

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We produce patterns on minute and curved surfaces of optical fibers, and develop a processing technology for fabricating sensors, antennas, electrical circuits, and other devices on such patterned surfaces by metallization. A three-dimensional processing technology can be used to fabricate a spiral coil on the surface of cylindrical quartz materials, and then the microcoils can also be applied to capillaries of micro-fluid devices, as well as to receiver coils connected to a catheter and an endoscope of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems used in imaging blood vessels. To create a spiral line pattern with a small linewidth on a full-circumference surface of an optical fiber, focused-ion-beam (FIB) etching was employed. Here, a simple rotation stage comprising a dc motor and an LR3 battery was built. However, during the development of a prototype rotation stage before finalizing a large-scale remodelling of our FIB etching system, a technical problem was encountered where a spiral line could not be processed without running into breaks and notches in the features. It turned out that the problem was caused by axis blur resulting from an eccentric spinning (or wobbling) of the axis of the fiber caused by its unrestrained free end. The problem was solved by installing a rotation guide and an axis suppression device onto the rotation stage. Using this improved rotation stage. we succeeded in the seamless patterning of 1-µm-wide features on the full-circumference surface of a 250-µm-diameter quartz optical fiber (QOF) by FIB etching.

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Development of reel-to-reel process system for roller-imprint on plastic fibers

Cited by 8 publications

References 8 publications

Nanoimprint technology for patterning functional materials and its applications

Nanoimprint technology for patterning functional materials and its applications

Soft patterning on cylindrical surface of plastic optical fiber

Patterning of Spiral Structure on Optical Fiber by Focused-Ion-Beam Etching

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