High-tech devices that are used in smartphones and wearable devices have complex nanometer-sized patterns. Since the size of electronics shrinks as technology evolves, devices face a difficult challenge in becoming smaller but being able to carry on more advanced functions. 

Professor Kim Jin-kon (CE) and Kim Sang-hoon (CE, Ph.D. Integrated) research team and Dr. Lee Woo’s research team developed a hybrid mould chemically layered in the field of polydimethylsiloxane with porous alumina that can be applied to the roll-to-roll process. This development was published as a title page paper on the Advanced Functional Materials magazine, an authority on materials.

The research team revealed that when polydimethylsiloxane, a type of silicon, was combined with an anodic porous alumina mould, it was able to fully contact the substrate at low pressure and prevent cracks in the moulds at high pressure or when it was bent by dispersing the force. In addition to flat boards, the mould was able to create nanostructure from curved substrates. Also it could be applied to roll‐to‐roll processes, which continuously imprints nano patterns.

 

Prof. Kim explained, “The recent study is meaningful in that the problems of porous alumina moulds, which are used for nano printing, are solved by laminating the mould and a flexible elastomer chemically in to a hybrid form.” Prof. Kim also explained that “We can easily manufacture nanostructures of various sizes and shapes, which will greatly help develop nanoimprinting processes.”