Microstructuring of glassy carbon mold for glass embossing – Comparison of focused ion beam, nano/femtosecond-pulsed laser and mechanical machining

Various methods, including focused ion beam (FIB), femto-second laser, KrF eximer laser and dicing techniques, were employed for preparing glassy carbon (GC) micro-molds, and those methods were characterized in terms of the process rate, the roughness and the shape of machined structure. FIB milling using a repetitive pass method produced nano/microstructures with flat channel bottom and nearly vertical sidewalls. Although FIB milling was slowest process, it provided the best quality of machined surface (Ra = 4–30 nm depended on milled depth). Femtosecond-pulsed laser machining also allowed fabricating flat bottom and nearly vertical sidewalls on an area of 1.2 × 1.2 mm2 at a scanning speed of 20 mm/s, but lead to an increase of the surface roughness (Ra = 80 nm). Femto-second laser in combination with FIB milling provided a possibility for the rapid fabrication of high quality microstructures on wide surface area. The roughness of machined surface decreased to 45 nm by the subsequent FIB milling. Microstructuring with a nanosecond-pulsed KrF eximer laser at an irradiation wavelength of 248 nm with a fluence of 13.2 J/cm2 also allowed the fast fabrication of master structure for micro-gear, resulted in slanted sidewalls and not ideally flat bottoms. The surface roughness (Ra) of the bottom and the side wall was about 45 and 70 nm, respectively. Dicing technique allowed machining micro-channels with a rectangular and pyramidal cross-section on an area of 15 × 15 mm2 under the feed speed of 50 mm/min. By reducing the feeding speed from 100 mm/min to 50 mm/min, surface roughness (Ra) of the structure side wall decreased from 150 nm to 70 nm. Achieved glassy carbon molds were then applied to the hot-emboss process of Pyrex and quartz glasses to investigate embossing conditions (emboss temperature, pressure and hold time) needed for the replication of Pyrex and quartz glass structures with various geometries and dimensions in glass plates with thickness of 1 mm. Replication results showed good replication at the nanoscale, resulted in the almost the same dimensions and surface roughness with that of cavities. Thicker plate provided faster filling in the emboss process of glass.