Fabrication of large area resin microlens arrays using gas-assisted ultraviolet embossing

Large-area microlens arrays are becoming important components in many applications such as LCD-TV diffusers. This paper reports a uniform pressure, low temperature process for their fabrication. The process integrates gas-assisted embossing and UV-curing embossing. During the process, the 230mm x 203mm PMMA substrate is pressed against the stainless-steel stamper coated with UV-curable resin. Under the gas pressuring and UV irradiating, a large array of microlens can be formed. By using this process, high embossing temperature and high embossing pressure can be avoided. Little residual stress is observed in the embossed PMMA substrate. The uniformity of large-area fabrication and optical properties of fabricated resin microlens array have been verified. This study has successfully shown the potential of this gas-assisted UV embossing process for the replication of large-area microstructures. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.