T. Kolbusch
Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH,
Germany
Keywords: roll-to-roll, roll-to-plate, nanoimprint lithography, polymer surfaces, high throughput
Summary:
Functionalized single- or multi-purpose polymer surfaces have led a new and exciting path to added and new surface properties like light guiding, anti-sticking and anti-bacterial behavior, light trapping or simply increased efficiency. On the one hand of this development, large area printed electronics technologies have been developed and upscaled over the past years while on the other hand, fast imprinting of rigid materials, especially when non-translucent, has provided big challenges. Still, functional coatings for touchscreens and screens of mobile devices provide a giant potential market for NIL technologies. For such applications of rigid and flexible materials, Coatema has developed a highly advanced set of UV nanoimprint lithography lab and production technology in roll-to-roll (R2R) as well as roll-to-plate (R2P) applications. There has been dedicated research on highly versatile and high-throughput manufacturing lines for especially seamless low-temperature nanoimprint applications. Various methods have been applied to meet the recent requirements in accuracy and production speed the same time. The authors present the latest developments in manufacturing technology, advancements and drawbacks in large area roll-to-roll seamless UV and thermal nanoimprint lithography. Such micro- and nano-patterns confer polymer surfaces with light-guiding, light-trapping, light-diffusing or microlens effects.