Large-area micro- and nanostructuring
Large-area micro- and nanostructuring of foil-based materials for industrial production
The use of micro- and nanostructuring in continuous production processes opens up new applications in high technology areas such as electronics, optoelectronics, photovoltaics, sensor technology as well as the packaging and security industries. The direct integration of different electronic components or optical structures on large, flexible surfaces in particular allows the development of cost-efficient products based on environmentally compatible manufacturing processes.
In the new roll-to-roll (R2R) facility designed and installed at the Institute a roll of foil (PET polymer web) of a maximum width of 300 mm is used as a substrate for the application of different materials and structures. After unwinding, the foil can be coated with the material to be patterned and then pre-dried, if necessary. The coating can be applied over the whole surface or in pre-structured form (e.g. via gravure printing). The subsequent patterning steps are carried out using different nanoimprint methods such as hot embossing or UV imprinting. The R2R facility for the first time allows large-area functional nanostructures to be created continuously in a printing-like process. More complex structures like optoelectronic components require a sophisticated series of coating and patterning steps since several layers of different materials must be applied and structured.
