As a heating method for RHCM (Rapid Heating Cycle Molding) various heating technologies such as high frequency induction heating, IR heating, gas heating, and high temperature steamare applied, but these methods are not satisfying high productivity due to low energy efficiency. Research has been actively conducted on RHCM based on planar heating elements with high heating efficiency, such as carbon nanotubes, which are applied. To apply the CNT web film to the RHCM, a heating element must be applied inside the injection mold and power must be applied. As electricity is directly applied to the CNT web film to generate heat, all mold parts in contact with the CNT web film must be insulated, and high heat transfer is required for rapid heating performance. Thus, in this study, a multi-layer structure mold module for insulation and high heat transfer was designed to enable rapid heating by applying a CNT web film as a heat source. To this end, we intend to present a research direction for the commercialization of rapid heating molds, by identifying the main variables of rapid heating through heating experiments by the mold metal and insulator materials, and reflecting them in the mold design.

Hot embossing is to fabricate desired pattern on the polymer substrate by pressing the patterned mold against the substrate which is heated above the glass transition temperature, and it is a high throughput fabrication method for bio chip, optical microstructure, etc. due to the simultaneous large area patterning. However, the bad pattern fidelity in large area patterning is one of the obstacles to applying the hot embossing technology for mass production. In the present study, POMS pad was used as a cushion on the backside of the micro-patterned 4 inch Si mold to improve the pattern fidelity over the 4 inch PMMA sheet by increasing the conformal contact between the Si mold and the PMMA sheet. The pattern replicability improvement over 4 inch wafer scale was evaluated by comparing the replicated pattern height and depth for POMS-cushioned Si mold against the rigid Si mold without POMS cushion.