Rapid fabrication of ultraviolet-cured polymer microlens arrays by soft roller stamping process

This paper reports an innovative technique for rapid fabrication of ultraviolet-cured polymer microlens arrays based on soft roller stamping process. In this method, a soft roller with microlens array cavity is made by casting a pre-polymer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in a plastic master of microlens array. The plastic master is prepared using gas-assisted hot embossing of polycarbonate (PC) film over a silicon mold with micro-holes array. The microlens array cavity on the soft roller is tilled with liquid UV curable polymer first. The roller rolls and stamps over the traveling transparent substrate. The microlens array pattern is formed. At the same time, the pattern on the substrate is cured by the UV light radiation while traveling through the rolling zone. In this study, a roller stamping facility with UV exposure capacity has been designed, constructed and tested. The replication quality, surface roughness and optical property of the replicated microlens arrays are measured, analyzed and proved satisfactory. This study demonstrates the potential of soft roller stamping for continuous rapid mass production. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.