Large-area and high-resolution distortion measurement based on moire fringe method for hot embossing process

A moire fringe approach is developed to identify simultaneously the global and local distortions in hot-embossed polymeric samples. A square grid pattern with a pitch of 63.5 mu m is hot-embossed on the polymer substrate. When a reference grid, a polymeric film with the same pattern, is placed on top of the sample, a moire fringe pattern is observed and recorded by a document scanner. The deviation of the intersections of the fringes from their ideal positions presents the residual distortion in the sample. With different sample-reference rotation angles eight images are acquired for the same sample to achieve the optimal result by a data fitting technique. The validity of this method is proved by the self-consistency of the results from the eight images. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time distortion quantification has been achieved both in a large area up to that of a scanner and with a high resolution at the level of 1 mu m. Furthermore, we do not use any expensive instrument, nor need to measure the sample reference rotation angle or position the sample precisely, and the process is run automatically by a computer instead of manual operation. (c) 2009 Optical Society of America