Thermoplastic structuring of thin polymer films

Micromolding of polymers

“…Such shell microstructures experience deformation over dimensions larger than the film thickness, and the patterned film is marked by shell-type geometry with little change in the film thickness during the patterning process (Dreuth and Heiden, 1999). Such shell microstructures experience deformation over dimensions larger than the film thickness, and the patterned film is marked by shell-type geometry with little change in the film thickness during the patterning process (Dreuth and Heiden, 1999).…”

“…Such shell microstructures experience deformation over dimensions larger than the film thickness, and the patterned film is marked by shell-type geometry with little change in the film thickness during the patterning process (Dreuth and Heiden, 1999). A modified hot embossing method involving a soft countertool was discussed by Dreuth and Heiden (1999). Such a matching pair requires extremely precise alignment of the mating surfaces.…”

Replication Processes

“…This process shows a high potential for microstructure technology, because ofthe capability to fabricate three-dimensional shapes with thin sidewalls in the micro range. Dreuth and Heiden [9] systematically investigate the structuring of thin polymer films of PET between Ifl urn and 1.5 urn by different methods: molding between two mold inserts, molding on elastic substrates, and role-to-role forming. In 2001 Truckenmiiller et al [30] transferred the macroscopic thermoforming process into the micro range and generated a new microstructuring method-micro thermoforming [29,31].…”

Rapid polymer microchannel fabrication by hot roller embossing process

“…Among the various polymer materials used in microfluidic systems, thermoplastics such as polycarbonate (PC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinylchloride (PVC), and cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) are the most commonly used polymers because of their good mechanical strength, optical transmissivity, chemical resistance, and biological compatibility performance. Researchers have developed a wide variety of thermoplastic replication methods, including hot embossing (Greener et al 2010;Juang et al 2002;Li et al 2008;Martynova et al 1997) thermoforming (Dreuth and Heiden 1999;Truckenmuller et al 2002) and injection molding (Attia et al 2009;McCormick et al 1997), to fabricate polymer microfluidic chips. Using polymer replicas created by hot embossing is the most widely applied approach.…”