Dynamic testing of polydimethylsiloxane for applications in micro-contact roll printing

Abstract

Micro-contact roll printing is an emerging alternative to photolithography as a means of cheaply manufacturing MEMS devices. Micro-contact roll printing control systems can regulate the printing pressure of a polydimethylsiloxane stamp on a polymer sheet, but the technology cannot adequately control the registration of the stamp on the sheet because the precise dynamic mechanical behavior of the polydimethylsiloxane stamp is unknown. The purpose of this thesis is to apply system identification techniques to characterize the dynamic behavior of samples of polydimethylsiloxane by constructing a test environment that can apply an input force at various frequencies and measure the output force and position at the test sample. A mechanical structure which integrates a voice coil actuator with a load cell and linear variable differential transformer was designed for this purpose. A model and controller were also built to predict the dynamic behavior of the polydimethylsiloxane. In future work the mechanical structure and controller will be integrated and used to fully characterize the behavior of polydimethylsiloxane and other polymers used in micro-fabrication processes.