Revisiting micro hot-embossing with moulds in non-conventional materials

Manufacturing moulds in non-metallic tooling materials using non-conventional structuring techniques is explored for rapid and/or alternative tooling for hot-embossing of polymers. Some challenges and advantages of producing embossing tools by deep reactive ion etching in silicon and/or replica-casting in poly(dimethylsiloxane) and utilizing them in the replication process are highlighted.