Continuous 2-Sided Roll to Roll Nanopatterning of a Polymer Film

We report a concept of producing nanosize structures on the cellulose acetate film by using a continuous (roll to roll) NIL method. We show structures were both sides of the polymer film are imprinted at the same time, in one imprint cycle. In the process only the surface of the polymer film is softened during the process. The results are compared to one sided roll to roll imprinting. The imprint time for a 1 mm structure was ca. 0.005 s which is very short when compared to the average imprint time used in wafer scale thermal NIL. Aligning possibilities of the printed structures are discussed. Roll to roll imprinted structures are analyzed using optical microscopy and AFM.