Automated and Continuous Production of Microstructured Metallic Plates via Cold Embossing

Many critical issues need to be addressed when microstructured reactors are manufactured in large unit volumes. The most crucial of these are cost, ease of production, and reliability. The lack of breakthrough manufacturing technology to provide high‐efficiency, low‐cost, high‐precision plates is a hindrance to the early market implementation of systems requiring metallic microstructured plates. This contribution focuses on the development and optimization of a combined embossing and bending tool for the quick and continuous manufacture of easily machined plates.     

我国模压全息技术发展现况述评

模压全息技术作为一种高科技已在近年来得到迅速的发展并趋于成熟,模压全息能以较低的成本和较高的速度进行大批量的工业化生产。本文对我国模压全息技术发展现况进行了述评。     

低空间频率银盐明胶全息图的浮雕特性研究及其应用

通过实验研究表明，对低空间频率的振幅型银盐全息图形表面已形成浮雕，经漂白，浮雕深度成倍加深；浮雕深度随空间频率而变化，并且可用不同曝光量进行调制。选择适当条件，可降低零级光强，提高全息图的一级衍射效率。     

乳胶厚度对卤化银反射全息图衍射特性的影响

实验研究了自制的超细颗粒卤化银乳剂SDUF－1分别在AAC显影、改进的R－10漂白处理及改进的GP－8溶解物理显影处理条件下，其乳胶厚度对反射全息图衍射特性的影响。实验结果表明，在这两种不同处理条件下衍射效率与胶厚的关系有相当大的差别，合适的乳胶厚度分别为12μm和6μm左右。     

端盖板高速连续级进模设计

根据制件的形状和生产要求，对RF-300C系列微电机端盖板的结构及工艺性进行了分析。介绍了一副轴承室深度和内径可调的端盖板高速连续级进模的排样设计和模具结构，分析了它的结构以及主要零部件的设计特点；叙述了压凸包、整形、打麻点、落料复位等模具结构在高速连续级进模中的设计方法。实践证明该模具结构可靠，运行状态稳定，制件质量符合技术要求。     

Recent Advances on High-Speed and Holographic Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing

Two-Photon Lithography, thanks to its very high sub-diffraction resolution, has become the lithographic technique par excellence in applications requiring small feature sizes and complex 3D pattering. Despite this, the fabrication times required for extended structures remain much longer than those of other competing techniques (UV mask lithography, nanoimprinting, etc.). Its low throughput prevents its wide adoption in industrial applications. To increase it, over the years different solutions have been proposed, although their usage is difficult to generalize and may be limited depending on the specific application. A promising strategy to further increase the throughput of Two-Photon Lithography, opening a concrete window for its adoption in industry, lies in its combination with holography approaches: in this way it is possible to generate dozens of foci from a single laser beam, thus parallelizing the fabrication of periodic structures, or to engineer the intensity distribution on the writing plane in a complex way, obtaining 3D microstructures with a single exposure. Here, the fundamental concepts behind high-speed Two-Photon Lithography and its combination with holography are discussed, and the literary production of recent years that exploits such techniques is reviewed, and contextualized according to the topic covered.     

Investigation on replication of microfluidic channels by hot embossing

In this study, effects of embossing temperature, time, and force on production of a microfluidic device were investigated. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrates were hot embossed by using a micromilled aluminum mold. The process parameters were altered to observe the variation of replication rate in width and depth as well as symmetry of the replicated microfluidic channels. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the experimental results indicated that embossing temperature was the most important process parameter, whereas embossing time and force have less impact. One distinguishing aspect of this study is that, the channels were observed to be skewed to either side of the channel depending on the location of the protrusions on the mold. The mechanism of the skewness was investigated by finite element analysis and discussed in detail. Results showed that the skewness depends on the flow characteristics of the material and could be reduced by increasing the embossing temperature. The best replication rates were obtained at parameter settings of 115°C, 10?kN, and 8?min for the molds with minimum 56?µm wide features of 120?µm depth. We also showed that the fabricated channels could be successfully sealed by solvent-assisted thermo-compressive bonding at 85°C under 5.5?kN force.     

Simple and cost-effective fabrication of two-dimensional plastic nanochannels from silica nanowire templates

Nanofluidic systems are attracting a great deal of interest due to their fundamental significance and potential applications in chemistry, biology and physics. However, high fabrication cost, expensive equipments and complicated fabrication process of most current fabrication techniques prevent lots of researchers from entering the nanofluidic field. Here we present a quick, simple and cost-effective method for fabricating two-dimensional (2D) nanochannel in polycarbonate (PC) substrates. Silica nanowires, taper-drawn from commercially available single-mode fiber were used as templates and embedded in the PC substrate by hot embossing. The nanochannels were created after removing the nanowires by hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) was used to seal the nanochannel reversibly. Nanochannels with widths range from 100 to 900 nm and lengths up to several millimeters were obtained. Various nanostructures including integrated micro and nanochannels, nanochannel array, bent nanochannel and cross-shaped nanochannel were fabricated and characterized by fluorescent microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM).     

UV nanoimprint using flexible polymer template and substrate

Nano to micro-sized patterns were formed on a flexible polymer substrate using a flexible UV imprint stamp. A 6 in. diameter flexible UV nanoimprint template was fabricated using PVC hot embossing and DLC coating. Using the UV nanoimprint process with the DLC coated PVC template, nano to micro-sized patterns were clearly formed on the flexible PET substrate without a residual layer, due to the antistiction properties and high mechanical hardness of the DLC coating. By depositing a Cr layer on the imprinted resist pattern and lifting it off, Cr metal patterns were fabricated on the PET substrate.     

A self-pumping and self-breathing micro direct methanol fuel cell with polymer bipolar plates

A passive micro direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) for reducing volume and parasitic power is designed and fabricated using several integrated technologies. New bipolar plates with tapered channels at the anode and a pillar array at the cathode are first applied to a passive micro-DMFC. The substrate of the bipolar plates made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is hot embossed with two molds, fabricated by UV-LIGA and micro machining. To make the bipolar plates conductive and hydrophilic, a nickel layer is electroplated on the ABS plates, and three PDDA/PSS bi-layers are self-assembled onto the nickel layer. The bipolar plates are produced using hot embossing, a low cost, highly accurate batch process. A single cell is assembled to verify the self-pumping function, and it can generate a peak power density of 7.4 mW cm⁻² with a 3 M methanol solution. The fuel cell is verified to work in three different orientations. When the fuel cell is placed horizontally, the self-pumping rate is about 0.1-0.15 mL h⁻¹. And the fuel cell can work through self-pumping for 5 h under this condition.