A study of hot embossed microchannels using confocal microscopy

Micro molding and hot embossing are among the most popular techniques for fabricating microstructures in polymeric materials, due to the relatively low cost of replication. In this paper we present an investigation of a hot embossing process including the optimisation of operating parameters for polystyrene (PS) and polycarbonate (PC) substrate materials. Nickel mold inserts were made via excimer-laser ablation and Ni electrodeposition. Replication of structures, such as channels with different aspect ratios, were investigated and experimental results are discussed