Micro hot-embossing is a powerful tool in the agile additive manufacturing industry. Its applications include optical components, micro-fluidic devices, MEMS, hydrophobic/hydrophilic surfaces, and energy harvesting devices. To overcome a drawback of low-process speed, the R2R process has been innovated, with novel embossing mechanisms and process optimization. Also, new materials beyond thermoplastic polymers have been applied to develop new devices, or enhance device performance. This review surveys recent progress in micro hot-embossing technology, in terms of new mold fabrication process, process innovation, and various applications.

We developed a compact high-precision slot-die coating machine for thin-film deposition on a flexible substrate. For smooth and precise coating, air-bearing and linear motor system were employed to minimize velocity ripple. The gap control mechanism is specially designed to have repeatability of gap between nozzle and substrate under 1 μm. Due to extremely precise gap control, the machine can coat thin-films down to 50 nm with 200 mm × 100mm size. A thin film of Ag nano-particle ink is coated for demonstration.

The one of the most important issue in roll-to-roll gravure printing is increase of ink transfer ratio or printability. As the result of high ink transfer ratio or printability, we can assess the quality of the printed patterns. The rheological properties are the important factors for the printability of electrodes patterning. In this study, the rheological properties of conductive ink are controlled by adding the solvent. The inks with different rheological properties are used for the patterning of the electrodes of 100μm by gravure printing equipment. The various printing speed, which also affect the rheological properties of conductive ink, is applied and the printed patterns are compared for their width and aspect ratio. Decreasing in the ink viscosity as well as increasing in the printing speed decreases the printability in gravure patterning, which shows that the rheological properties are important factors for the printability of gravure patterning.

Ink transfer process is very important to determine quality of printed pattern, therefore its mechanism should be understood to control printing quality. Although there have been many attempts to understand ink transfer mechanism by numerical simulation and experimental studies, their model was too much simple to model realistic printing process and our understanding is not enough yet. In this paper we designed ink transfer visualization system to present flow visualization of ink transfer process for gravure offset printing. We considered rotational effect of blanket roll which is related with printing speed and used non-Newtonian fluid as working fluid such as Ag paste. For printing unit, cantilever-type blanket roll is used for convenient visualization of ink transfer. Serial images were captured continuously by using highspeed CMOS camera and long range microscope. We investigated the effects of various design parameters such as printing speed and pattern angle on the ink transfer process. We found more stretched ink filament for non-Newtonian fluid than Newtonian fluid. As increasing printing speed, length of stretched ink filament and height of break-up point are also increased. We also compared ink transfer process between CD and MD pattern and its relationship with ink transfer mechanism.

Roll-to-roll process is an emerging mass production method for printed and flexible electronics such as touch screen panel, RFID tag, thin film solar cell, and flexible display due to its high throughput. High precision in printing and coating is required to apply functional materials onto substrate. For such reason, every part of the roll-to-roll equipment needs to be precisely fabricated and to retain its precision under regular operation. In this article, the precision of cantilever type idler roller and a novel method to mitigate its deflection under web tension loading are discussed and the method is verified using both the numerical and the experimental works. The proposed method improves the structural rigidity of cantilever type roller whose advantages, such as low capital cost and high web path configurability, are maintained.

Recently, roll-to-roll printers are being developed actively by various research teams such as research institutes, universities and companies for the application of printed electronics. The printing methods that are widely used in the roll-to-roll printing equipments are gravure, gravure and flexo, which depend on the inks used and electronic devices produced. In general, a single printing unit of roll-to-roll printing equipment adopts only one printing method and this method is not changeable, which limits the application fields of the developed printing equipments. In this paper, the roll-to-roll printer, in which the printing unit has the novel design concept, is described.