Hot roll embossing in thermoplastic foils using dry-etched silicon stamp and multiple passes

International audienceHot roll embossing is a promising technique for manufacturing and patterning of micron and sub-micron features. It attracted attention due to its high volume production and large area processing. In this work, we describe a hot-roll-embossing process for manufacturing flexible devices in different commercially available thermoplastic polymer foils using a microstructured silicon wafer as a flat stamping tool. Larger features of a 100 μm width were defined by photolithography and dry etching. A process combining deep reactive ion etching and reactive ion etching of silicon in fluorinated plasma was developed to achieve patterns in silicon with slightly positively tapered sidewalls to allow for easy demoulding. 100 μm features were successfully replicated in cyclic-olefin-copolymer (COC) and poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA), using relatively low temperature and multiple passes. Smaller features with 1 μm width were patterned by electron beam lithography and transferred by DRIE in silicon stamps, then replicated in COC foils