ホットエンボス成型による石英ガラス型を用いた<br>ホウケイ酸ガラスのマイクロ成型

Abstract

Recently, there have been increasing demands for high-throughput, high-resolution and cost-effective fabrication techniques for glass owing to its excellent optical properties (e.g., high refractive index and low UV absorption level) and chemical/thermal stability, which are essential for high-performance optical, biological, and chemical micro- electro-mechanical system (MEMS) applications. Glass hot-embossing techniques are expected to meet the requirements mentioned above and thus are being actively studied. The motivation of this work is the notion that replicated quartz glass may be applied not only to the fabrication of MEMS devices but also to mold replication processes as molds. Although a quartz mold is generally used for the UV-imprint process, it can also be applied to glass embossing with the aid of adequate mold release treatment. In this study, quartz molds were prepared by hot embossing with carbon molds, and applied to the hot embossing of borosilicate. First, two types of glassy carbon (GC) master were prepared by dicing and Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser machining to produce quartz molds by hot embossing. Then, quartz molds were replicated from the GC masters by hot embossing, and their surfaces were sputtered with molybdenum. Finally, micro-hot-embossed test structures were developed in borosilicate with high fidelity. The examined method showed great potential for fabricating quartz molds efficiently and at a very low cost.