Abstract
Micro features on the surface are well-known to have significant effects on optical or mechanical properties such as the optical interference, reflectance at the surface, contact angle, interfacial friction, etc. These surface micro features are increasingly employed to enhance the functionality of the applications in various application areas such as optical components for LCD or solar panel. Diverse surface features have been proposed and some of them are showing excellent efficiency or functionality, especially in optical applications. Most applications employing the micro features need manufacturing process for mass production and the injection molding and roll-to-roll forming, which are typical processes for mass production adopting polymeric materials, may be also preferred for micro patterned plastic product. Since the functionality or efficiency of the surface structures generally depends on the shape and the size of the structure itself or the array of the structures on the surface, it would be very important to replicate the features very precisely as being designed during the molding the micro pattern applications. In this paper, a series of research activities is introduced for roll-to-roll forming of micro patterned film including filling of patterns with UV curable resin, demolding of surface structures from the roll tool, control of surface energy and cure shrinkage of resin and dispose time and intensity of the UV light for curing of UV curable resin.
