The Industrial Consortium On Nanoimprint, which is helmed by the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, a research institute of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research, is ready to put roll to roll nanoimprint manufacturing to the test.
Nanoimprinted structures and components are being used in items such as anti reflection films, and solar cells. However, their impact in consumer products is limited as viable manufacturing processes to scale-up the production of such nanostructures is lacking. IMRE and its partners in ICON are planning to manufacture the structures, using a roll to roll process. This fast, mass production method can create large area nano structured components, opening the way for new consumer applications not previously conceptualized or economically feasible.
Roll to roll imprinting is the third industry-themed project by ICON that includes local and international partners such as Solves Innovative Technology Pte Limited (Singapore), Advanced Technologies and Regenerative Medicine LLC (USA), Young Chang Chemical Co Limited (South Korea), EV Group (Austria), Micro Resist Technology GmbH (Germany) and NTT Advanced Technology Corporation (Japan).
The partners who are raw material providers, tool makers, and end users represent the entire value chain for producing nano structures and putting them to use. Some of the applications that the consortium hopes to harness with roll to roll nanoimprint include anti fouling surfaces, anti reflection films to enhance the efficiency of solar cells, wire grid polarizer, and optical films for flat panel displays.
Dr Low Hong Yee, an IMRE senior scientist, who heads the team developing the roll to roll nanoimprint technology, said that "The roll to roll nano imprinting technique is a crucial centerpiece in ICON’s plan to complete the value chain for harnessing the true potential of our bio-mimetic multifunctional nanoimprint technology surfaces. With this method we can merge nanoimprint technologies into real world applications and on an industrial scale."
He added that the engineered materials that are produced can be made for a variety of applications. For example, nanostructures can be used to mimic patterns of surfaces found in nature to endow the synthetic surfaces with properties such as inherent color effects, tack-free adhesion to surfaces, water proofing and anti reflectivity.
ICON will be introducing two types of roll to roll techniques a thermal and a UV based version. The thermal method makes patterns on the substrate directly, can accommodate a variety of plastics for different applications, and is ideally suited for the fabrication of micro and nano fluidic devices, biochemical assays as well as other biomedical applications. The UV technique allows quicker processing because it is a room temperature process, and offers the advantage of fabricating the nanostructures on cross linkable resins, thus imparting higher thermal and mechanical stability to the imprinted products.
Mr Hermann Waltl executive sales and customer support director of EV Group said that "The joint collaborative work with ICON to design and build the first roll to roll thermal nanoimprinting machine gives us the chance to work with other industry partners on how this equipment can be applied."
Mr Koh Teng Hwee MD of Solves, a small and medium enterprise that had worked with IMRE to develop the roll to roll UV nanoimprinting tool, said that "ICON provides us the opportunity to hear directly from industry about their needs so that we can customize future roll to roll equipment designs to specific industry requirements. ICON is all about transitioning scalable nanoimprinting techniques out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. Roll to roll strategies certainly fit the bill here. A lot of companies are watching the progress closely."
Mr Kim Woo Yong global marketing director of Young Chang Chemical Co Limited said that "This partnership on roll to roll nanoimprinting enhances our competitiveness in the global arena, particularly in helping us create new functional and patterned film technologies for displays and solar cell applications."
Ms Gabi Gruetzner MD of Micro Resist Technology GmbH said that "We are happy to be involved in this groundbreaking project that will bring a new dimension to our core business and help us develop materials for a greater variety of markets and industries."
