INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING J. Micromech. Microeng.

14 (2004) R1R14

JOURNAL OF MICROMECHANICS AND MICROENGINEERING PII: S0960-1317(04)68657-8

TOPICAL REVIEW

Review on micro molding of thermoplastic polymers

M Heckele and W K Schomburg1
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institut f ur Mikrostrukturtechnik Postfach 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

Received 21 August 2003 Published 17 December 2003 Online at stacks.iop.org/JMM/14/R1 (DOI: 10.1088/0960-1317/14/3/R01) Abstract Molding of micro components from thermoplastic polymers has become a routinely used industrial production process. This paper describes both the more than 30-year-old history and the present state of development and applications. Hot embossing, injection molding, reaction injection molding, injection compression molding, thermoforming, and various types of tool fabrication are introduced and their advantages and drawbacks are discussed. In addition, design considerations, process limitations, and commercially available micro molding machines are presented.

1. Introduction
Micro molding of thermoplastic polymers is one of the most promising fabrication techniques for non-electronic micro devices. Fabrication costs of molded micro parts are hardly affected by the complexity of the design. Once a mold insert has been made, several thousand parts can be molded with little effort. The cost of the raw material in most cases is negligibly low, because only small material quantities are required for micro components. Therefore, parts fabricated by micro molding, even from high-end materials, are suitable for applications requiring low-cost and disposable components. Moreover, thermoplastic materials are a very large material class, which allows one to nd a suitable polymer for nearly every application (see table 1). There are polymers which are stable at temperatures as high as 250 C (e.g., polyetheretherketone, PEEK) and others which resist aggressive chemicals such as alkaline solutions, acids, and solvents (e.g., peruoralkoxy, PFA). Polymers are electrical and thermal insulators, but when lled with appropriate powders they can be used as electrical conductors, heat sinks, and even magnets. Molded micro structures can be either soft and elastic such as polyoxymethylene (POM) or hard and brittle such as polysulfone (PSU). They are available from optically transparent materials such as (cycloolen copolymer) COC and opaque ones such as polyamide
1

(PA) lled with graphite. Polymers such as PVDF even exhibit a piezo-electrical effect. Hence, micro molding of thermoplastic polymers should be considered whenever a micro component leaves the laboratory and enters the market. The development of micro molding started more than 30 years ago. A lot of experience has been gathered in that time, and today micro molding machines are commercially available and routinely used in industry every day. A variety of micro molding tools can be purchased from several suppliers. Therefore, use of micro molding in industry and the number of scientic institutes working in this eld are expected to increase in the forthcoming years. This will cause a growing interest in an overview of the current situation of micro molding, which is given in this review.

2. Micro molding processes

There are ve processes which are employed for micro molding of thermoplastic polymers: Injection molding, reaction injection molding, hot embossing, injection compression molding, and thermoforming. 2.1. Injection molding The well-known macroscopic injection molding can be adapted to the micro scale by employing a variotherm process [1]. It comprises the following process steps: The mold cavity R1

On leave to RWTH Aachen, Germany.

0960-1317/04/030001+14$30.00

2004 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Topical Review

Table 1. A list of thermoplastic polymers that have been used for micro molding. Acronym COC PMMA PC PS POM PFA PVC PP PET PEEK PA PSU PVDF Full name Cyclo-olene copolymer Polymethylmethacrylate Polycarbonate Polystyrene Polyoxymethylene Peruoralkoxy copolymer Polyvinlchloride Polypropylene Polyethylene terephtalate Polyetheretherketone Polyamide Polysulfone Polyvinylideneuoride Temperature stability [ C] 140 80 130 80 90 260 60 110 110 250 80120 150 150 Properties High transparency High transparency High transparency Transparent Low friction High chemical resistivity Cheap Mechanical properties Transparent, low friction High temperature resistivity Good mechanical properties Chemical and temperature resistivity Chemically inert, piezo-electric Structure Amorphous Amorphous Amorphous Amorphous Semi crystalline Semi crystalline Amorphous Semi crystalline Amorphous/Semi crystalline Semi crystalline Semi crystalline Amorphous Semi crystalline

(a)

Mold inserts Injection channel

(b)

Polymer injection

Figure 2. Typical batch of micro structures as it comes from an injection-molding machine.

(c)

Figure 1. Principal process steps of micro injection molding: (a) the molding tool is closed, evacuated, and heated above the glass transition temperature of the polymer, (b) the polymer is injected into the tool, and (c) tool and polymer are cooled down and the polymer is demolded.

Injection molding is a technique that has been well established in the macroscopic production of polymer parts for decades. Therefore, vast know-how and machine technology is available to be made use of in micro injection molding as well. In general, cycle times are shortest (on the order of some minutes) when producing micro parts from polymers by injection molding. In almost all cases industrial series production is based on injection molding. 2.2. Reaction injection molding Reaction injection molding is similar to injection molding, but instead of one type of plastic, two components are injected into the closed molding tool. This technique allows fabrication of parts from polymers that are not thermoplastic, such as thermosetting materials and elastomers. The manufacture of micro parts by reaction injection molding was investigated in the mid-1980s [3, 4] but turned out to be difcult to perform because a good mixture of the components needs to be achieved on the micro scale and a chemical reaction has to take place in the micro structures of the molding tool, which requires a comparatively long time and results in long cycle times. Now, with the possibility of UV-curing instead of thermal initiation of the polymerization, reaction injection molding has appeared again. Today, this process is quite fast and allows a type of rapid prototyping, because thermal cycling is not necessary any more.

equipped with a micro structured tool (mold insert) is closed, evacuated, and heated above the glass transition temperature of the polymer (see gure 1(a)), an injection unit heats the polymer up and presses the viscous polymer into the mold (gure 1(b)), and the polymer (and the tool) is cooled down below its glass transition temperature and demolded from the tool (gure 1(c)). This cyclic temperature control is called variotherm (variothermal). Figure 2 displays a photograph of parts made from PC as they come from the injection-molding machine. They are still connected to the sprue and runners, which are the part of the injection channel and distribution system, respectively, which are molded together with the micro parts to be fabricated. From the micro parts, shown in gure 2, optical ber connectors [2] are assembled. R2

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(a)

Thermoplastic foil Mold inserts

(b)

(c)

Residual layer
Figure 3. Principal process steps of hot embossing: (a) a thermoplastic lm is inserted into the molding machine, (b) the molding tool is evacuated and heats up the polymer above its softening temperature, and (c) the polymer is cooled down and demolded.

Figure 4. Typical batch of micro structures molded by hot embossing.

2.3. Hot embossing The principal process steps of hot embossing are [5]: A thermoplastic lm is inserted into the molding machine (see gure 3(a)), a micro-structured tool (mold insert) in an evacuated chamber is pressed with high force into the lm, which has been heated above its softening temperature, and the mold insert is lled by the plastic material which replicates the microstructures in detail (gure 3(b)). Then the setup is cooled and the mold insert is withdrawn from the plastic (gure 3(c)). Figure 4 displays a photograph of a batch of housings of micro valves [6] from PSU as it comes out of the molding machine. The embossing die and countertool are not closed completely, a characteristic residual layer is produced by hot embossing. The residual layer may serve as a kind of magazine during demolding and handling before a subsequent

dicing process. The main costs of molded micro components typically result from mounting them into a system. This can be facilitated signicantly by arranging single micro components on a batch in a well-ordered manner. In contrast to injection molding, during hot embossing the polymer ows a very short way from the foil into the micro structure only. As a result, very little stress is produced in the polymer and the molded parts are well suited as optical components, such as wave-guides and lenses. The temperature cycle of the polymer may be smaller for hot embossing, since the viscous polymer does not need to be transported a long way into the molding tool. This reduces shrinkage during cooling and the friction forces acting on the micro structures during demolding. Thus more delicate micro structures with higher aspect ratios can be fabricated by hot embossing compared to injection molding. Hot embossing is particularly suited for forming plane plates or foils, as a small amount of plastic has to be molded only. Hot embossing allows for a very simple setup of the plant, which is particularly advantageous if tool or plant reconstructions or modications are necessary. This results in very short set-up times. When using standardized mold inserts, a few minutes are sufcient to exchange a tool. Moreover, foils made of various thermoplastic materials can be put into the machine successively without any further modications being required. Therefore, hot embossing makes the production of small and medium-scale series economically more efcient and is especially suited for laboratory applications. On the other hand, relatively long cycle times of up to 30 min may be required for some components. For some applications such a long time can be advantageous if, e.g., inner stress is reduced by extreme slow cooling rates. But long cycle times are caused mainly by the fact that the heated polymer is not supplied continuously by an injection unit. Such problems can be reduced considerably by further developing hot embossing machines and their periphery as has been done for injection molding machines. The principal limit for shortening the molding cycle of hot embossing is a bit larger than for injection molding, because in injection molding the molten polymer can be lled into a mold insert which is colder than the softening point of the polymer while in hot embossing the polymer needs to be heated up by the mold insert. This means that the thermal cycle of a mold insert can be smaller in an injection molding machine than in a hot embossing machine. On the other hand, hot embossing has not yet reached this limit and it is not yet clear how large the difference in cycle time will be, due to this effect. Cycle times are also strongly affected by the tool design. For mass fabrication a tool can be designed with heating and cooling features adapted to the special design of the component. Such an expensive tool will be not very exible and not be applicable for another micro component. Originally designed for the LIGA standard format of 26 66 mm2, the embossing area has been extended considerably in the past few years, and this year molding machines for samples with a diameter of up to 200 mm are being introduced onto the market. With increasing area, shrinkage of the plastic component gains signicance. A sophisticated execution of the process is required to prevent deformations, such as overdrawn edges of the components or R3

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even damage of the mold insert. Shrinkage of hot embossed samples is smaller, and, therefore, it is especially suited for a further extension of the format. 2.4. Injection compression molding Injection compression molding is a combination of injection molding and embossing to overcome the problem of heating the polymer by the tool. The plastied polymer is injected from a screw into the semi-closed molding tool and then pressed into the micro structures by closing the tool. In this way, the problem of injection through a small gap is avoided when producing a micro structure on a thin carrier layer. Injection compression molding is widely used to produce CDs and DVDs. CDs possess critical dimensions of less than one micro meter, but the aspect ratio is rather small and, therefore, demolding is no problem. 2.5. Thermoforming Micro thermoforming is employed to form thin thermoplastic lms. The polymer lm is inserted into a molding tool, which shows micro structures on one side (mold insert). The molding tool is evacuated (see gure 5(a)), the lm is clamped (gure 5(b)), heated up and pressed into the micro structure by a gas (gure 5(c)), cooled down and demolded (gure 5(d )). Figure 6 shows a 25 m thick PS lm with 125 m deep and 250 m wide micro channels. Only a few papers have been published on molding of thin thermoplastic lms [7, 8]. In contrast to the processes described above, the lm does not ll the micro structures of the molding tool completely. The lm may not be heated so that it becomes too soft, because the permeability of polymers for gases increases with temperature. As a result, and due to the high exibility of thin lms, demolding is easy for lms molded by thermoforming, and even micro structures with a cross section similar to the form of the Greek letter can be demolded. Thermoforming is not suitable for achieving high aspect ratios, as a thin lm cannot be stressed too much, if it is not made soft enough by heating.
(c) (a)

Evacuation

Sealing

Polymer film Mold insert

(b)

Pressurized gas

(d )

Figure 5. Principal process steps of micro thermoforming: (a) a thermoplastic lm is inserted into the molding machine and the tool is evacuated, (b) the lm is xed by clamping, (c) the molding tool heats up the polymer above its softening temperature and a gas presses the lm against the mold insert, and (d ) the polymer is cooled down and demolded.

3. Micro molding tools

Molding tools used in micro engineering generally consist of a micro-structured mold insert and the tool. This separation is unknown in macroscopic molding technology. It is due to the completely different requirements to be met by the micro structure and by the tool. The tool has to fulll the classical tasks of encapsulating the polymer and ejecting the molded parts. In addition, the micro-molding tool needs to provide for a vacuum and to undergo a variotherm process. Evacuated tools are required in micro molding, because the micro structures form pocket holes from which air cannot escape when the polymer is lled in. Consequently, the structure has to be empty right from the start. In addition, the mold inserts need to be heated above the glass transition temperature, so the small amount of thermoplastic material processed does not solidify immediately when getting into contact with the large mass of the mold insert. For demolding, the mold insert has to be cooled down again. R4

Figure 6. Micro channels manufactured in a PS lm by micro thermoforming.

The requirements, which need to be fullled by the mold insert, are very different. The mold insert has to provide for the primary micro structure and, therefore, is manufactured with techniques appropriate for this. The micro structure should exhibit smooth side walls to avoid friction during demolding and a small inclination angle is desirable, if this can be tolerated by the application of the micro structures to be molded. Furthermore, the mold insert should preserve

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(a) (b) (c )

(d )

(e)

(f )

Figure 7. Mold inserts fabricated by different processes: (a) milling with a CNC machine, (b) laser-manufactured tool with different surface roughnesses, (c) x-ray lithography and electroplating, (d ) silicon etching (courtesy of Jenoptik Mikrotechnik GmbH), (e) photolithography with SU8, and ( f ) electric discharge machining (courtesy of Institut f ur Mikrotechnik Mainz).

the micro structure over many molding cycles and withstand lateral and normal forces during injection and demolding. This is achieved by using a material that is hard and ductile enough for the mold insert and by choosing a suitable design. Which material is hard and ductile enough and which design is proper depends on a lot of parameters, such as the polymer to be molded, the molding process, etc, and no general rule can be given. While the tool with its closing and sealing units and ejection systems is manufactured by classical metal processing, various methods are applied for micro structuring the mold insert. These are methods of direct structuring, including mechanical micro machining, laser structuring, and electric discharge machining (EDM) on the one hand, and lithographic processes with x-rays or UV radiation combined with electroplating, on the other. Figure 7 shows some examples of mold inserts fabricated by different techniques. Electroplating allows fabrication of a metal mold insert from micro structures made of plastics, silicon, and other materials not suitable for use as a mold insert [911]. It may be also advantageous to transform a metal micro structure worked from a solid soft metal into a hard alloy (e.g., FeNi or CoNi) or hard metal by electroplating. Another reason for employing electroplating is that some critical micro structures such as narrow grooves or sharp concave corners cannot be milled while their inverted forms (narrow rib or sharp convex corner) can easily be manufactured by mechanical means. Even structures in the nanometer range can be replicated by electroplating and, therefore, this is an important technique for tool manufacturing. For very high microstructures mold inserts need a thick backing in order to provide the necessary mechanical stability. This results in quite long plating times

of up to some weeks. For certain purposes thinner backings (shims) are possible and electroplating is much quicker. Another problem is that the electrochemical process is very sensitive to disturbing artifacts, such as thin insulating layers and gas bubbles in the electrolyte. Control of the concentration of chemicals in the electrolyte is another important issue, which may affect the mechanical stress in the mold insert, and thus, may result in the bending of the mold insert. Consequently, a lot of know-how is required for electroplating mold inserts. This know-how is available at some companies and research institutes, which offer electroplating of mold inserts as a service [12]. Mechanical micro machining is closest to traditional tool technology. Techniques such as turning, drilling, or milling are employed for fabricating mold inserts (see gure 7(a)). Mold inserts fabricated by mechanical micro machining with CNC machines are offered by companies (e.g., [13] and [14]) and available from research institutes e.g., [15]. The smoothest side walls of micro structures are obtained with diamond tools but these are not suitable for work in steel which is a favorite material for mold inserts. Moreover, the smallest diameter of diamond tools is approximately 200 m. When narrower grooves need to be fabricated on a mold insert or the mold insert needs to be made of tool steel, milling and drilling tools made of hard metal can be used, with the requirements regarding the smoothness of side walls being reduced. Compared to lithographic processes it is easy to fabricate mold inserts with three-dimensional micro structures even with curved surfaces by mechanical micro machining, and sloped side walls of the micro structures can be achieved by simply using milling tools with the required prole. R5

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Another technique initially developed for macroscopic use is electric discharge machining (EDM) (see gure 7( f )). Today, it also allows micro structured mold inserts to be produced. This is achieved by using wires as thin as 30 m for wire erosion or by sinking erosion with electrodes produced by electroplating. In this way, micro structures from nickel or other metals can be transformed into mold inserts made of steel. A disadvantage of this technique is that the side walls of micro structures fabricated in this way are rough compared to milling. Lithographic processes are particularly suited for minute structures. A resist is patterned with a micro structure that is electroplated to build up a mold insert. Classical LIGA technology based on x-ray deep-etch lithography is characterized by extremely high structural heights, smallest lateral dimensions, and side walls with a roughness of less than 50 nm (see gure 7(c)) [16, 17]. UV lithography is a less complex and less expensive alternative to x-ray technology, which is able to meet less demanding specications. Both methods are based on the lithographic generation of non-conductive plastic micro structures that are lled by electroplating. Mold inserts made by both methods are available from companies and research institutes [12]. Mold inserts from silicon (see gure 7(d )) or glass micro structured by wet etching [1820] or reactive ion etching [21] can also be employed for micro molding, but silicon is a very brittle material, so wafers tend to break. Therefore the wafer is bonded on top of a quartz glass to get a stable compound. If less than 10 molding steps are to be performed for prototyping purposes, mold inserts from silicon may be suitable. Silicon treated by wet etching is more favorable, because it shows inclined side walls and a smoother surface than dry-etched silicon. Another possibility for structuring metal is laser technology (see gure 7(b)) [11]. This development is still at its beginning, but promises to have enormous potential in terms of aspect ratios and minimum structural dimensions. This technology is of particular interest, as it allows processing of materials such as stainless steel or tungsten carbide.

Figure 8. SEM of a hot-embossed micro structure from PVC for a hologram on a movie picture, 1.4 m in height [25].

4. History
To the knowledge of the authors, the rst paper on micro molding of thermoplastic polymers was published in 1970 by a group of researchers from RCA laboratories at Princeton, NJ, USA [22]. The objective of this work was to develop a low-cost reproduction technique of hologram motion pictures for television playback [23]. A master tape was made by electroplating nickel into photo resist patterns. The master was run through heated rollers together with a vinyl tape and, thus, the micro structure (see gure 8) was transferred into the vinyl. This work was continued in Zurich, Switzerland [24], where diffraction gratings for color ltering were manufactured by hot embossing of PVC [25]. The ratio of the depth of the micro structure to its width reached up to 5.7 (0.4 m wide and 1.4 m high gratings). Work at RCA laboratories was stopped, because no market success had been achieved [26]. R6

The rst paper on micro molding of optical waveguides was published in 1972 [27]. A simple groove was hot embossed into PMMA with a glass ber and the groove was lled with poly(cyclohexyl methacrylate) (PCHMA) which shows a higher optical index. Independent of this work, the development of micro molding started in Karlsruhe, Germany in the mid-1980s as a replication technology for LIGA microstructures, to provide this technique with an economic mass fabrication process. LIGA initially was an acronym for Lithograe und Galvanik which means lithography and electroplating [28]. Then micro molding was introduced in the process and the acronym was reinterpreted as Lithograe, Galvanik und Abformung which means lithography, electroplating, and molding [3, 29]. First investigations had been carried out using reaction injection molding [4] until it turned out that injection molding is a much easier process, which can be performed with a shorter cycle time. Therefore, further work focused on injection molding [30, 31]. During the rst years the parts manufactured with micro molding were intended to demonstrate that high aspect ratios, steep side walls, and stepped proles can be achieved and various materials can be used [30, 31]. In the following years, micro molding turned out to be the most important production step of LIGA in industrial applications, because this low-cost process makes LIGA an economic success. On the other hand, micro molding can not only be done with LIGA-made mold inserts. A lot of products do not need to have high aspect ratios, and inclined side walls are advantageous for the demolding of micro structures. Mold inserts made by micro milling and electroplating of micro structures made by UV lithography in several 10 m thick resist layers were brought up for discussion. Meanwhile, the development of hot embossing had been started at Karlsruhe [32]. The intention of this work was to nd a way to produce a molded LIGA microstructure on top of electronic circuits, i.e. to fabricate an acceleration sensor directly on top of an amplifying circuit on a silicon wafer [33]. When hot embossing turned out to be suitable for molding micro structures with aspect ratios as high as 10 and introduction of low mechanical stress in the products, this process was employed for other devices as well [34, 35].

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new components were developed in the next years such as micro pumps [41, 47], micro valves [4850], and micro sensors [51].

5. Design
Polymers show properties that differ from those of silicon, glass, and metals. Of major signicance are thermal expansion, creep, diffusion, and chemical properties. Especially the large thermal expansion of polymers has to be considered when micro components are to be designed from polymers. For a lot of applications it is necessary to combine different materials, which results in stresses that are a function of temperature. Even when two different types of polymers are bonded to each other the difference in their thermal expansion may cause remarkable effects. On the other hand such effects can be avoided with a proper design. A 10 mm long device with a typical expansion coefcient of 100 ppm will be extended by 1 m with every degree of temperature change. This means that polymers are not suitable for building up high-precision components with small tolerances. The example of an anemometric ow transducer [52] illustrates how such difculties can be overcome. Figure 10 shows that a metal heater wire is mounted in a ow channel. The wire is supported by a membrane, which is adhesively bonded between two hot-embossed housing shells. Both the wire and the membrane are designed to be very thin (100 nm and 2.4 m, respectively) in order to achieve a low heat capacity. If the membrane was spread over the full width of the ow channel, thermal expansion of the housing would result in a change of the transducer signal, because the wire would behave like a strain gauge. Therefore, the membrane is xed to the housing at two points only and the sensitive part of the wire is placed on a tongue-like part of the membrane, which is not affected by the strain of the housing. Moreover, the heater wire is arranged on the neutral axis where bending of the membrane does not result in any strain. In this way, the signal of the transducer is changed by 1% only when the temperature rises from 20 C to 60 C. Polymer parts tend to creep much more than metals and glasses when subjected to a permanent load. Making housings

Figure 9. Micro pump fabricated by injection molding [45].

In the same year in which the rst publication was made by the Karlsruhe group, a group from Zurich reported on their work related to hot embossing of integrated optical micro structures [36, 37]. Two years later, the rst paper on hot embossing by a group from Mainz, Germany, was published [38] and rst papers on micro molding of thermoplastic polymers from Santa Cruz, CA, USA [26], Middlesbrough, UK [39], Dortmund, Germany [40], Stockholm, Sweden [41], Ann Arbor, MI, USA [42], Hayward, CA, USA [19], Gaithersburg, MD, USA [18], Jena, Germany [43], and Taiwan [44] followed. In recent years hot embossing became an emerging technology for the fabrication of electronic devices with critical dimensions in the nanometer range [7984]. The rst components based on micro molding were made for micro optical applications as described above [22, 27]. The rst micro uidic component was a micro pump [45] (see gure 9). It was fabricated by injection molding from polysulfone (PSU). Two housing shells fabricated by molding were adhesively bonded to a membrane made of polyimide patterned by photolithography. The mold had been fabricated by milling with a CNC machine. The fabrication process of the micro pump was later called the AMANDA process [46]. Today, it is still employed to produce micro uidic devices. With this process and other similar processes several

Membrane

Heater wire

Figure 10. Flow sensor made of PSU with a support membrane from PI [52]. By the design of the membrane, sensitivity to temperature changes is reduced.

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from polymer does not cause any problem in most cases, because they can be designed thick enough to withstand the load. However, creep is a problem if, e.g., the elastic element of a sensor or actuator is made of a polymer. Often, it is a good idea to fabricate the housing by micro molding and use another material as an elastic element. It is also known that polymers allow for the diffusion of gases and are not tight over a longer term. The usual way of solving this problem is to evaporate approximately 100 nm of a metal layer onto the polymer [53]. This increases fabrication costs, but is no problem under most circumstances. The design of polymer micro components needs to account for bonding techniques which differ very much compared to bonds made between silicon, glass, or metals. Adhesive bonding is quite popular, because it avoids high temperatures that may damage micro structures or induce mechanical stresses. If adhesives are used, they need to be kept away from micro cavities by stopping grooves or sealing partitions [54, 55]. The design of the same micro component may be very different when it is to be bonded by ultrasonic power, because energy directors are necessary in this case. The lid of capillary systems is often bonded by welding [5660] or with solvents [59]. Most of these bonding techniques are tolerant to small damages or particles on the surface to be bonded because adhesives can ll small holes, ultrasonic power and welding processes locally melt the polymer and the liquid may close holes, and solvents let polymers swell. This facilitates the design of polymer micro components and contributes to the success of micro molding. Last but not the least, there are design rules caused by the molding process. Sharp corners should be avoided in the design where possible, because they cause stress peaks in the polymer, which may result in cracks. Most problems in micro molding are not caused by the lling of the mold, but by demolding. During demolding, micro structures may be torn apart, deformed, or destroyed. Demolding very much affects the wear of mold inserts and delicate parts of the mold insert may even be destroyed after a single molding process, if the micro structure is not designed properly or unsuitable molding parameters are chosen. It is possible to demold micro structures with vertical side walls, but an inclination angle of just 2 reduces demolding forces a lot and is even more important than the roughness of the side walls. An important factor in demolding is the shrinkage of the polymer, which occurs when cooling down the polymer between the lling of the mold and demolding. Therefore, demolding forces also are a function of the orientation of microstructures relative to the direction of shrinkage and the placement of critical micro structures relative to the center of shrinkage. This is why the path of the polymer into the mold has to be chosen with care for injection molding. Delicate micro structures, such as pins with a high aspect ratio can be protected against shear forces resulting from shrinkage and mold lling by neighboring auxiliary structures which are stable enough to withstand these forces. Shrinkage of the samples may be not identical over a longer production run. For this reason, molded parts that need to t together in the later production should be placed on the same mold insert and pieces from the same molding step should be attached to each other. R8

If a mold insert is covered by areas with micro structures of different height or varying density, these areas should be arranged symmetrically on the mold insert. In this way, tilting of the mold insert during molding is avoided.

6. Applications
Micro molding has been employed to fabricate a variety of polymer components. Most applications are in the eld of micro optics and micro uidics, but there are also some examples of micro (and nano) electrical and mechanical devices. The most widely sold micro molding product probably is the well-known CD and DVD for data storage, music, and videos. Another wide spread article are holograms which are afxed to credit cards [26]. Other molded micro optical components are spectrometers [35, 62] (see Figure 11(a)), lenses [6567], optical switches [68, 69], optical ber connectors [2], waveguides [27, 70, 71], anti-reective surfaces [72], optical gratings [9, 25], and photonic structures [73]. There is a variety of molded micro uidic devices, such as pumps [41, 46, 47, 64] (see Figure 11(d ), valves [6, 4850], nebulizers [62], ink jets [62], degassers for HPLC systems [74], capillary analysis systems [1820, 63, 7577] (see gure 11(c)), devices for investigations of living cells [62, 78] (see gure 11(b)), pressure sensors [51], and ow sensors [52]. Today, the largest turnover is probably reached with nebulizers for inhalers used in asthma therapy, the largest market is expected for lab-on-a-chip applications. Prospective applications of thermoplastic molding also lie in electronics. One of them is nano imprinting [7984] which may allow for the low-cost replication of electronic circuits with critical dimensions as small as ten nanometers. Embossing techniques provide for the transfer of the desired geometry into a thin resist layer on a silicon wafer, and this geometry is the basis for generating circuits by reactive ion etching, lift-off, and other methods. For this application the polymer is used in an intermediate step only. Hence, the most important properties are a good adhesion to the substrate, dimensional stability, easy dissolution, and a low glass transition temperature which allows one to keep the thermal cycle small or even to avoid it completely. Other future electronic applications may be electronic and optical circuit boards [71], acceleration sensors [33, 85], and simple devices, such as electrical switches [86], may nd a market share as well.

7. Machine development
The development of micro molding and the development of molding machines have always been connected with each other. The simple process technology, which mainly requires a heating device and a pressure unit, inspired several research groups to start thermoplastic molding [87]. Simple optical structures with aspect ratios of up to 1 did not require any special equipment. Modied laminating presses or small stamping presses with an electrical heating plate were sufcient to transfer microstructures from a metallic master to a plastic sheet.

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(a )

( b)

(c )

(d )

Figure 11. Products made by thermoplastic molding. (a) Hot-embossed micro spectrometer [35], (b) injection-molded cell chip LILLIPUT [62] (courtesy of Steag microParts GmbH and Merlin Diagnostica GmbH), (c) hot-embossed micro titer plate [63], and (d ) piezo-driven micro pump XXS2000 made by injection molding [64] (courtesy of thinXXS GmbH).

The goal to provide reliable commercial equipment for micro replication led to adaptation of the CD stamping process and lm extrusion technology. CD technology very much inspired injection compression and injection molding technologies, thus leading to a complete new machine generation [92] (see gure 13). Film fabrication with continuous structuring from roll-toroll was the rst implementation of thermoplastic molding of micro structures [22] and still provides us with holographic security elements and light-reecting lms for different purposes [8991]. In this case the demanding task is to develop suitable rotating tools. Production machines are not commercially available, but need to be developed for each application. The appearance of the LIGA technology led to a new challenge in the thermoplastic molding of micro structures: The replication of high aspect ratios. As a result, mold lling and demolding became two new issues. Grooves and pin holes of some hundred microns depth and a few microns width only required a very low viscous polymer for mold lling. In Karlsruhe, rst attempts in the mid1980s focused on reaction injection molding using thermosets of low viscosity [4]. A reaction injection molding machine was constructed (see gure 12), but process difculties and problematic properties like large shrinkage prevented a success similar to the one achieved by UV-curing and PDMS casting nowadays.

Figure 12. Home-made reaction injection machine [4].

The broader material range then gave rise to the idea of developing thermoplastic replication of micro structures, and a commercially available injection molding machine for CD production was employed. It needed to be adapted to the molding of micro structures, because operation at very high temperatures close to the decomposition temperature of the polymer and integral heating of the mold and material turned out to be insufcient for complete mold lling. Trapped air R9

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(a)

(b)

(c )

(d )

(e )

Figure 13. Commercially available micro molding machines. (a) Injection molding machine for CD fabrication [88] (courtesy of Ferromatik Milacron Maschinenbau GmbH), (b) hot embossing machine HEX03 [93] (courtesy of Jenoptik Mikrotechnik GmbH), (c) hot embossing machine Stamp Press MS 1 [94] (courtesy of Wickert Maschinenbau GmbH), (d ) injection molding machine microsystem 50 [92] (courtesy of Battenfeld Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH), and (e) EVG R 520HE hot embossing system for embossing and nanoimprinting [95] (courtesy of EV Group).

caused defects in high aspect ratio micro structures. Therefore, a vacuum unit needed to be included. Another constraint in high-aspect-ratio molding is a high stiffness of the machine frame to ensure precise movements during demolding. Steep side walls mean contact between the mold and replica during the whole demolding process. Any lateral movement has to be avoided along the demolding path of up to some millimeters. Finally, the requirement made on machine control is extremely high. Minimal speed of a few microns per second and position control with an accuracy of a few microns even at high forces are necessary. Critical points are transient stages when the polymer softens and viscosity changes rapidly. At this moment machine control must maintain the pressure without damaging the mold insert. In cooperation with Jenoptik Mikrotechnik, the rst hot embossing press suitable for high aspect ratio replication was developed at Karlsruhe: The HEX02. The high accuracy of this machine allows alignment of the upper and lower crosshead of the machine very precisely. Thus, aligned R10

molding on both sides of a polymer or on an already patterned substrate is possible. A new concept of alignment working also under high load and high temperature changes was developed under the BMBF-funded project PROBE [96] and implemented in the machine generation of HEX03 (see gure 13(b)). An alignment accuracy of less than 10 m can be achieved with this machine. Hot embossing machines which aim at the industrial market are the Stamp Press MS 1 (see gure 13(c)) [94], which was the rst machine used by industry for hot embossing of micro spectrometers. This year, a new type of hot embossing machine will be introduced on the market by the same company. This machine reaches much shorter cycle times and is able to produce hot-embossed layers of up to 200 mm in diameter. It can be equipped with an automatic handling system, which contributes essentially to the reduction of cycle times, because the polymer workpiece can be exchanged more quickly and at much higher temperatures. Another direction of development are for machines suitable for the production of smaller details. The demand

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for nano replication results in a slightly different machine technology. Machines for large-area replication on wafer areas of up to 200 mm with modied wafer bonding equipment are available from Karl Suss and EVG (see gure 13(e)) [95, 97].

8. Limitations and solutions of special problems

What are the limitations of micro molding of thermoplastic polymers? The investigations of nano imprinting show that even structures of only a few tens of nanometers in size are replicated very well. This is a bit astonishing, because the size of the macromolecules the polymer consists of is more than that. Obviously, the macromolecules to a certain extent adapt to the form of the mold. Hence, the limit of the smallest possible feature size has not yet been approached. However, there is a limitation regarding the achievable aspect ratio of columns, grooves, and walls. This limit is a function of the geometry of the microstructure, its position on the sample, the polymer type, and the process parameters. Therefore, there is no simple rule for giving us the maximum aspect ratio which can be achieved in a particular case. An extreme case is a groove with a width of 10 m and a depth of 100 m, which is lled and demolded with PMMA by hot embossing. Another example is the spectrometer with 270 nm deep steps of an optical grid in a vertical PMMA wall of 125 m in height, which are both hot-embossed and injectionmolded. Finite element calculations could help solve molding problems of high-aspect-ratio microstructures, but FEM codes are available for mold lling only and the limiting process step is demolding of the microstructures. Development of FEM calculations of demolding has just started [98]. Another limitation is the overall size of a sample or batch of microstructures, which is molded in one step. Shrinkage of the polymer is a function of the overall size and the farther a delicate microstructure with a high aspect ratio is placed from the center of shrinkage, the more difcult does demolding become. On the other hand, shrinkage can be reduced both by a proper design and by a proper molding process. Therefore, further development may open up the way to larger samples and even lower costs for multiple components produced in one batch. Moreover, the production of through holes may be difcult, because a direct contact of delicate microstructures of the mold insert with the counter plate may cause damage. However, if a small gap is left in-between, it will be lled with the polymer, because the molding process needs to be performed such that microstructures are lled. In general, a thin residual layer needs to be removed after molding to open up through holes. An alternative to this may be hot embossing of composite layers [99]. Interesting effects may be achieved by replacing the simple semi-nished product by a composite of several foils. An example is the micro spectrometer for the UVVIS range [35] (see gure 11(a)). By combining PMMA foils of variable refraction coefcients, a waveguide for light transmission is obtained. If polymers are chosen, which are not welded during embossing, but still adhere strongly to each other so that they can be demolded together and separated afterwards, through holes or separate, microstructures can be generated (see gure 14).

Figure 14. Micro riddle (300 300 m) hot embossed into the upper layer of a stack of two polymers which were separated afterwards [99].

The second layer may be a metal conduction path on the surface of the plastic semi-nished product [100]. During hot embossing this conduction path follows the topography and, thus, an electric connection from the surface to the structure base is generated. This is a way providing micro uidic structures with an additional functionality.

9. Conclusions and outlook

Micro molding of thermoplastic polymers today is a wellestablished process. Several micro molding machines are sold on the market and mold inserts fabricated with various techniques suitable for most applications are available. This is reected by an increasing interest of industry in micro molding processes and machines. While injection molding is the process most frequently used for micro molding in industry, because short cycle times are achieved, hot embossing is most popular on the laboratory scale, because it is more exible and more delicate structures can be produced. Alternative processes are under investigation by research groups. Further research work will focus on achieving higher aspect ratios on larger scales and on developing special functionalities of molded parts, such as through holes and electrical paths. Apart from this work, there is still a need for the development of processes to be applied after molding, such as bonding, and for establishing reliable interconnections to the macroscopic world. Research is required with respect to a proper design of devices and components, because design rules can neither be transferred without changes from micro components made of silicon or glass nor from macroscopic polymer products. There are a variety of applications already known for micro molding of thermoplastic polymers and many more are expected to come up in the future.

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