Experimental and numerical study on the viscoelastic property of polycarbonate near glass transition temperature for micro thermal imprint process

The aim of this research is to obtain a numerical material model for an amorphous glassy polymer, polycarbonate (PC), which can be used in finite element analysis (FEA) of the micro thermal imprint process near the glass transition temperature (Tg). Through understanding of the deformation behavior of the PC specimens was acquired by performing tensile stress relaxation tests. The viscoelastic material model based on generalized Maxwell model was introduced for the material near Tg to establish the FE model based on the commercial FEA code ABAQUS/Standard with a suitable set of parameters obtained for this material model from the test data. Further validation of the model and parameters was performed by comparing the analysis of FE model results to the experimental data. As a result, the feasibility of the established viscoelastic model for PC near Tg was confirmed and this material model can be used in FE analysis for the prediction and improvement of the micro thermal imprint process for pattern replication.