Lamination transfer films for forming reentrant structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10220600-B2
Application number	US-201515111355-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2015
Priority date	Jan 20, 2014
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

Transfer films comprising a carrier film, a sacrificial template layer deposed on the carrier film and comprising reentrant forming template features, and a thermally stable backfill layer having a first surface conforming to the reentrant forming template features and forming reentrant features and an opposing planar second surface; and methods of making transfer films are disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A transfer film comprising:
a carrier film;
a sacrificial template layer disposed on the carrier film and comprising reentrant forming template features;
a thermally stable backfill layer having a first surface conforming to the reentrant forming template features and forming reentrant features and an opposing planar second surface.

2. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the thermally stable backfill material comprises an organosilicon polymer.

3. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the reentrant forming template features are capable of being baked out while leaving a thermally stable reentrant feature layer.

4. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the carrier film comprises a release layer separating the carrier film from the sacrificial template layer.

5. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the reentrant feature comprises an elliptic paraboloid.

6. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the reentrant feature comprises a segment of a sphere.

7. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the reentrant feature forms a lens feature.

8. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the reentrant feature comprises micro or nanostructure.

9. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the thermally stable backfill layer is inelastic.

10. The transfer film according to claim 1 , wherein the sacrificial template layer is inelastic.

11. A method of forming a transfer film, comprising:
disposing a sacrificial template layer on a carrier film;
forming reentrant forming template features in the sacrificial template layer; and
coating a thermally stable backfill material on the sacrificial template layer to form a thermally stable backfill layer having a first surface conforming to the reentrant forming template features and an opposing planar second surface, forming a lamination transfer film.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the forming step comprises embossing the sacrificial template layer to form first features and then mechanically or thermally deforming the first features to form reentrant forming template features.

13. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the forming step comprises disposing a masking layer on the sacrificial template layer and etching the sacrificial template layer through openings in the masking layer to form the reentrant forming template features in the sacrificial template layer.

14. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the template features comprise nano or microstructure and the thermally stable backfill layer conforms to the nano or microstructure and the reentrant forming template features.

15. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the forming step comprises disposing the sacrificial template layer on removable beads to form the reentrant forming template features in the sacrificial template layer.

16. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the sacrificial template layer comprises beads formed of sacrificial material and then coating the thermally stable backfill material on the beads.

17. A method of using the transfer film of claim 1 , the method comprising:
laminating the planar second surface of the transfer film to a receptor substrate;
baking out the sacrificial template layer to form a thermally stable backfill layer having reentrant features.

18. The method according to claim 17 , further comprising removing the carrier film from the sacrificial template layer before the baking out step.

19. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the reentrant features are disposed on microstructure features of the thermally stable backfill layer.

20. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the reentrant feature comprises an elliptic paraboloid.

21. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the reentrant feature comprises a segment of a sphere.

22. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the reentrant feature forms a lens feature.

Assignees

• 3M Innovative Properties Co

Inventors

• Wolk Martin B
• Benson Jr Olester
• Collier Terry O
• Free Michael Benton
• Meuler Adam J
• Meyer Justin P
• Schwartz Evan L

Classifications

• B29C45/00

  Injection moulding, i.e. forcing the required volume of moulding material through a nozzle into a closed mould; Apparatus therefor (injection blow-moulding B29C49/06) · CPC title

• B32B2457/12

  Photovoltaic modules · CPC title

• B32B27/20

  using fillers, pigments, thixotroping agents · CPC title

• B32B2264/102

  Oxide or hydroxide · CPC title

• B29C41/24

  for making articles of indefinite length · CPC title