SBIR Phase II: Ultrasonic Nanocoining for Creating Large, Low-Cost Arrays of Sub-Wavelength Features

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是超声波纳米铸造的发展——一种新的平台技术，用于生产抗反射、自清洁或通过结构着色的塑料薄膜或玻璃板。这种纳米结构的表面可以为广泛的商业应用提供好处，从消费电子到汽车和航空航天。这些表面可以通过防止OLED显示器的内部反射和太阳能电池板表面的覆盖玻璃反射来节省能源。怎么啦？此外，这些表面通过在表面上添加功能来更好地利用可用空间，而不会增加任何明显的体积。纳米铸造是一种低温、无化学物质的工艺，不依赖于化学蚀刻或纳米颗粒。由于未知的健康和环境影响，纳米颗粒最近受到美国环保署的严格审查。该项目所包含的科学涉及多个学科，纳米铸币最终将为广泛的行业带来低成本、可扩展的制造。超声波纳米制模可以低成本、大批量地复制由纳米结构组成的表面纹理，这些纳米结构比可见光的波长还要小。这是通过创建一个具有纳米结构表面的圆柱形模具，然后使用卷对卷加工将模具压印到塑料中来完成的。当前项目的目标是使用纳米技术将数十亿个亚波长特征压痕到平面和圆柱形镀镍模具中，形成连续的图案，然后使用这些模具通过卷对卷加工将结构复制到各种聚合物材料中。该研究将研究模具制造过程的每一步，包括金刚石模具的聚焦离子束加工，控制双模超声谐振致动器，并排记录数百万个压痕，而不会在它们之间留下明显的接缝。复制的薄膜表面将进行光学和润湿性能测试，最终结果将是证明商业潜力的功能化透明薄膜样品。在未来，该工艺可能用于制造用于生产规模压印的米级纳米结构金属模具。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will be in development of Ultrasonic Nanocoining - a new platform technology that is used to generate plastic films or glass panels that are anti-reflective, self-cleaning, or colored through structure. Such nano-structured surfaces can provide benefits for a wide array of commercial applications, ranging from consumer electronics to automotive and aerospace. These surfaces can save energy by preventing internal reflections in OLED displays and cover-glass reflections on the surface of solar panels. What?s more, these surfaces enable better use of available space by adding functionality to surfaces without adding any appreciable volume. Nanocoining is a low-temperature, chemical-free process that does not rely on chemical etching or nano-particles, which have recently come under scrutiny from the EPA because of unknown health and environment effects. The science contained within the project spans several disciplines, and Nanocoining would ultimately contribute to low-cost, scalable manufacturing for a wide array of industries.Ultrasonic Nanocoining enables low-cost, high volume reproduction of surface textures comprised of nano-structures that are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. This is done by creating a cylindrical mold with a nano-structured surface, then imprinting that mold into plastics using roll-to-roll processing. The objectives of the current project are to use Nanocoining to indent billions of sub-wavelength features into both flat and cylindrical Nickel-plated molds in a continuous pattern, then use these molds to replicate the structure into a variety of polymer materials using roll-to-roll processing. The research will study each step of the mold fabrication process, including focused ion beam machining of the diamond die, controlling a dual-mode ultrasonic resonant actuator and registering millions of indents side-by-side without leaving a significant seam between them. Replicated film surfaces will be tested for optical and wetting properties, and the final result will be functionalized transparent film samples that prove commercial potential. In the future the process may be used to create meter-scale nano-structured metal molds for production-scale imprinting.