Tailored Nanopatterning by Controlled Continuous Nanoinscribing with Tunable Shape, Depth, and Dimension

Abstract

We present that the tailored nanopatterning with tunable shape, depth, and dimension for diverse application-specific designs can be realized by utilizing controlled dynamic nanoinscribing (DNI), which can generate bur-free plastic deformation on various flexible substrates via continuous mechanical inscription of a small sliced edge of a nanopatterned mold in a compact and vacuum-free system. Systematic controlling of prime DNI processing parameters including inscribing force, temperature, and substrate feed rate can determine the nanopattern depths and their specific profiles from rounded to angular shapes as a summation of the force-driven plastic deformation and heat-driven thermal deformation. More complex nanopatterns with gradient depths and/or multidimensional profiles can also be readily created by modulating the horizontal mold edge alignment and/or combining sequential DNI strokes, which otherwise demand laborious and costly procedures. Many practical user-specific applications may benefit from this study by tailor-making the desired nanopattern structures within desired areas, including precision machine and optics components, transparent electronics and photonics, flexible sensors, and reattachable and wearable devices. We demonstrate one vivid example in which the light diffusion direction of a light-emitting diode can be tuned by application of specifically designed DNI nanopatterns.

Scalable and High-Throughput Top-Down Manufacturing of Optical Metasurfaces

“…(b) (i) Mechanism of the DNI process, (ii) a rigid nanograting mold, (iii) a inscribed nanopattern on a flexible substrate, (iv) the SEM image of a nanopattern using the DNI. Inset indicates the enlarged perspective view [185]. (c) Laser-assisted large-area nanoimprint method and its results.…”

“…(i) Schematics of laser-scanning replication, (ii) the SEM image and (iii) the atomic force microscope profile of the mold [192]. Reproduced with permission from (a) [2]; CC by 4.0, (b) [185]; American Chemical Society, 2019, and (c) [192]; Elsevier B.V., 2014.…”

“…It can be applied to a variety of metals and polymers to create patterns with a sub-50 nm size at very high-speed (10 cm/sec). As a follow-up study, Oh et al advanced the DNI process by revealing the correlation between the pressure and temperature of the process and controlling the shape, depth, and dimensions of a nanopattern as shown in Figure 10 b [ 185 ]. Vibrational indentation patterning (VIP) has a similar mechanism and characteristics to DNI but it does not require thermal energy [ 186 ].…”

Applications of Bioinspired Reversible Dry and Wet Adhesives: A Review

“…However, the effective modulus needs to be incorporated with proper contact geometry because the shape of the tips (or caps) dominates the stress distribution on the contact interfaces (Kroner and Arzt, 2012). The extruding tip structure, such as spatula and mushroom (symmetric spatulae), which can be observed at the end of the pillar structure, has a significant effect on the adhesion of the dry adhesive structure (Kim and Sitti, 2006;Del Campo et al, 2007b;Bullock and Federle, 2011;Kwak et al, 2011a;Heepe et al, 2012;Kroner and Arzt, 2012;Oh et al, 2019). The extruding tip structures not only increase the contact area of the hairy structures but also uniformly distribute the stress at the contact interface until they are separated from the target substrate (Carbone et al, 2011).…”

Solution-processable electrode-material embedding in dynamically inscribed nanopatterns (SPEEDIN) for continuous fabrication of durable flexible devices

“…To this end, a solution-processable electrode-material embedding in dynamically inscribed nanopatterns, named SPEEDIN, is developed in this study. First, in SPEEDIN, a micro-or nanopatterned trench structure is continuously created on flexible polymers, such as polyimide (PI) substrate, with high mechanical and resistant chemical properties by dynamic nanoinscribing (DNI) 46,47 . In DNI, an edge of a patterning mold continuously inscribes the seamless micro-or nanograting pattern on various flexible substrates through a linear stroke under conformal contact, but there is no systematic DNI application on PI due to its tough machinability; also, multiple DNI strokes can be sequentially combined to readily create multidimensional patterns on PI.…”