Sacrificial mold embossing for high density, high aspect ratio micro/nano structures

An unconventional embossing method is evaluated in which de-embossing is avoided to prevent the deformation or damage of the polymer microstructure on the substrate due to one or more of the following issues involved in hot embossing process: higher feature density, higher aspect ratio, bad surface quality and under-cuts. In this study, a PDMS mold is used to transfer a SU-8 structure to a water-soluble polymeric stamp under low pressure and low temperature, which is used as the rigid tool in the following hot embossing and can be reused by being dissolved in water, an environmentally benign solvent. This method has potential uses in the replication of high aspect ratio microstructure on polymeric materials that cannot be easily achieved using other methods.