Micro Press Molding of Borosilicate Glass Using Plated Ni–W Molds

Abstract

The hot embossing of glass with a size on the submicron or micron level is a target of interest for the industrial production of products such as microdevices. For fluidic micro chip applications, polymer materials have been used with the advantage of a relatively low cost of fabrication. However, glass is suitable for high-temperature applications such as in microreactors.Although glass is also a good candidate material for optical devices because of its enhanced optical properties, the development of mold materials has not been established for the hot embossing of glass. In this study, we used Ni-W as a mold material for the hot embossing of glass. A plated Ni-W film has a high heat resistance and a linear expansion coefficient, properties that are similar to those of glass materials. Focused ion beam (FIB) machining was employed for the micron and submicron structurings of a Ni-W mold material. Borosilicate glass, D263, was used as glass material. Glass patterns of 0.4 mm width were obtained by hot embossing with the Ni-W mold.

Unusual Indentation Behavior of Alkali Metaphosphate Glass Above Glass Transition Temperature

“…Glass can be formed into various shapes by applying stress above the glass transition temperature ( T g ) because glass exhibits viscous deformation above T g . For example, there are cases that glasses are formed around 30°C–50°C above T g in cutting‐edge technologies, such as microlens molding, hot embossing, and nanoimprinting . The shape of formed glasses is typically maintained in the annealed or cooled process above T g after removing the forming stress.…”

Fabrication of glass-like carbon molds to imprint on glass materials by MEMS processing technologies

“…The Ni-P layer, stiffened by thermal-treatment, was then used as mold for Pyrex glass (Iwaki glass, T g = 560°C) at a heating temperature of 600-650°C (Mekaru et al 2007;2009a). Moreover, a 400-nmwidth line/space pattern was transferred to substrates of a heat-resistant glass D263 (Schott, T g = 557°C) and of Pyrex glass by using a Ni-W mold with 40 wt% tungsten content heated up to 650°C (Yasui et al 2007). However, Ni alloy mold cannot be used with quartz with T g above 1,000°C.…”

Searching for noble Ni–Nb–Zr thin film amorphous alloys for optical glass device molding die materials

“…Recently, several candidate amorphous alloys, including Ni-W platings [6] and Pt-based thin film amorphous alloys [7][8][9][10], have been reported for glass molding die materials. These materials showed some advantages, such as high thermal stabilities and similar coefficients of linear expansion to common glasses.…”