Micro press molding of borosilicate glass using plated Ni-W molds

The hot embossing of glass with a size on the submicron or micron level is a target of interest for the industrial production of products such as microdevices. For fluidic micro chip applications, polymer materials have been used with the advantage of a relatively low cost of fabrication. However, glass is suitable for high-temperature applications such as in microreactors. Although glass is also a good candidate material for optical devices because of its enhanced optical properties, the development of mold materials has not been established for the hot embossing of glass. In this study, we used Ni-W as a mold material for the hot embossing of glass. A plated Ni-W film has a high heat resistance and a linear expansion coefficient, properties that are similar to those of glass materials. Focused ion beam (FIB) machining was employed for the micron and submicron structurings of a Ni-W mold material Borosilicate glass, D263, was used as glass material. Glass patterns of 0.4 μm width were obtained by hot embossing with the Ni-W mold.