The Epigem advantage

The Epigem advantage lies in the advances we have made in blending polymer technology with microengineering. We are able to produce polymeric materials with tailored bulk or surface properties. We provide accurate moulding of surface shapes with sizes ranging from 0.1 micron to 100 micron for applications in optics, microfluidics or micromechanics. Moulded channels and wells can be filled with a range of materials, from metals to biological media and multilayered to provide 3-D structures. We have processes for precision multilayer coating, replication (micromoulding), lamination and metallisation of flexible and rigid substrates. In addition we design, build and operate batch and reel to reel manufacturing processes providing prototypes through to final production volumes.

UV Embossing Process

A low viscosity UV curable resin material (1) coated onto a substrate (2) is contacted with a master form (3).

The substrate may be a flexible polymer carrier film, a rigid polymer or glass.

The resin is hardened almost instantaneously by exposure to UV radiation (4). The cured resin adheres strongly to the substrate and weakly to the master form from which it can readily be stripped.

For high volume applications, the process can be configured to run at continuously high throughput speeds.

Materials

Epigem has synthesis, formulation and processing experience of a wide range of speciality materials, particularly polymers, for coatings and films including:

• Photocurable resins, including liquid crystals, with tailored optical and mechanical properties
• Conducting polymers, particularly polyaniline
• Fluorinated polymers with optical, piezo or pyro electric properties or low surface energies
• Filled thermosetting resins with filler dependent properties such as thermal or electrical conductivity or with low expansion and high dimensional rigidity
• Functional polymers that can be chemically modified to provide selective binding properties.

Epigem has access to films with a wide range of surface treatments that provide properties such as adhesion or release for laminates, or good electrical or barrier properties etc.