Large area micro roller embossing using low cost flexible mould fabricated from polymer-metal film

A method to fabricate a low cost, large area and flexible mould and its applications in large area roller embossing are presented in this paper. A liquid crystal polymer (LCP) film, which had a glass transition temperature as high as 280°C and was clad with a copper foil on each side, was used as a starting material for mould fabrication. The LCP film and the copper foil were 50 μm and 36 μm thick, respectively. The copper foil was patterned via photolithography and copper etching process. A large polymer-metal hybrid flexible mould of 200 × 200 mm² (effective pattern area: 150 × 150 mm²) was fabricated. The fabricated mould has a minimum feature size of 25 μm, and has been used to demonstrate large area micro roller embossing as well as ultraviolet casting. Microfluidic devices were embossed on polymeric as well as ceramic green substrates.