Rapid injection molding of high-aspect-ratio nanostructures

✍ Scribed by Shuntaro Hattori; Keisuke Nagato; Tetsuya Hamaguchi; Masayuki Nakao

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 436 KB
• Volume: 87
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-9317
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mee.2009.11.028

✦ Synopsis

The authors have developed a method for thermal injection molding of high-aspect-ratio nanostructures involving dynamic heating of the mold surface. The conventional injection molding of nanostructures is difficult to achieve because of the rapid formation of a solidified layer caused by high thermal flux from the melted polymer to the cold mold. In our system, a nanostructured mold surface was heated during polymer filling and then immediately cooled by the mold bases, which are kept at a lower temperature. Using polystyrene, we demonstrated the replication of line-and-space (pitch: 800 nm, depth: 400 nm) and cone patterns (pitch: 200 nm, depth: 400 nm) with a cycle time of less than 15 s.