Research Projects

With the advancement in textured surfaces in recent years, significant growth in roll-to-roll technologies has been witnessed. Some beneficial areas/fields of roll-to-roll technologies include electronics, optics, avionics, medical, energy, and construction industries. Roll-to-roll technologies offer low unit costs, high-volume production rates, process efficiency and materials efficiency, low weight, etc. Globally roll-to-roll replication process started a few years back. But most of the work is carried out for micometer-level features. At the national level, various fabrication techniques have been utilized by researchers to fabricate micro/nano textured surfaces with different applications. However, due to certain limits of each fabrication technique, the development of micro/nano textured over a wide surface is not carried out. For the development of micro/nano textures over wide surfaces, the roll-to-roll technique is most suited. A micro/nano structured roller is required to carry out the roll-to-roll replication process. Ultra-precision machining is best suited for the development of roller mold. For roll-to-roll replication the setup is required, where the textured roller can be mounted and rolled over the polymer sheet or UV/thermal curable resins. The proposed work aims to manufacture and replicate functional micro-nano structures on polymers using the roller Imprint technique. The ultra-precision machining process can fabricate the surfaces with functional micro-nano structures. Further, it is planned to replicate functional structures into large polymer surfaces by using the proposed roll-to-roll replication setup. The potential of the process will be demonstrated by replicating optical structures including micro-lenslet arrays, Optical gratings, diffractive structures, and other functional surfaces. The ultimate goal is to develop the process chain which includes the development of textured roller mold, Setup development for roll to roll replication, modeling, and optimization of the replication process, and demonstration of the replication process for Micro/Nanostructures. The specific objectives of the project are. • To develop the process for Micro/Nano texturing of roller molds by ultra-precision machining. • To develop the roller based replication technology for scalable production of optical micro-nano structures, specifically optical gratings, arrayed structures i.e. micro-lenses • To optimize the replication process and to develop the process chain for large-area replication In the proposed work, the developed setup will be capable of replicating Micro/Nanostructures on 100mm wide and 1000mm long polymer sheets. The target TRL level in this project is between 4 to 5. The developed setup will be capable of replicating the Micro/Nanostructures meeting requirements of the actual application. The technology and knowhow will be transferred to industries to scale up the production of micro/nano structured surfaces