Topographic characterization of nanostructures on curved polymer surfaces

The availability of portable instrumentation for characterizing surface topography on the micro- and nanometer scale is very limited. Particular the handling of curved surfaces, both concave and convex, is complicated or not possible on current instrumentation. However, the currently growing use of injection moulding of polymer parts featuring nanostructured surfaces, requires an instrument that can characterize these structures to ensure replication-confidence between master structure and replicated polymer parts.
This project concerns the development of a metrological traceable quality control method with a portable instrument that can be used in a production environment, and topographically characterize nanometer-scale surface structures on both flat and curved surfaces. To facilitate the commercialization of injection moulded polymer parts featuring nanostructures, it is pivotal that the instrument can characterize and validate the micro- and nanoscale topography directly in the production facility, as the interruptive time delay induced from shipping to an external facility is not compatible with present large-scale production routines. Satisfactory characterization of nanostructured curved surfaces in vibration prone production facilities has not previously been reported in the literature, and therefore has great novelty potential.