  In this paper, we will report our achievements in developing large area
patterning of multilayered ceramic green composites using roller embossing. The
aim of our research is to pattern large area ceramic green composites using a
modified roller laminating apparatus, which is compatible with screen printing
machines, for integration of embossing and screen printing. The instrumentation
of our roller embossing apparatus, as shown in Figure1, consists of roller 1
and rollers 2. Roller 1 is heated up to the desired embossing temperature ;
roller 2 is, however, kept at room temperature. The mould is a nickel template
manufactured by plating nickel-based micro patterns (height : 50 $\mu$m) on a
nickel film (thickness : 70 $\mu$m) ; the substrate for the roller embossing is
a multilayered Heraeus Heralock HL 2000 ceramic green composite. Comparing with
the conventional simultaneous embossing, the advantages of roller embossing
include : (1) low embossing force ; (2) easiness of demoulding ; (3) localized
area in contact with heater ; and etc. We have demonstrated the capability of
large area roller embossing with a panel size of 150mmx 150mm on the mentioned
substrate. We have explored and confirmed the impact of parameters (feed speed,
temperature of roller and applied pressure) to the pattern quality of roller
embossing. Furthermore, under the optimized process parameters, we
characterized the variations of pattern dimension over the panel area, and
calculated a scaling factor in order to make the panel compatible with other
processes. Figure 2 shows the embossed patterns on a 150mmx 150mm green ceramic
panel.
