Manufacture of microscale random pattern using indentation machining technology

Abstract

The display industries recently demand new microscale dot-type patterns for thinner and brighter displays with high energy efficiency, which are randomly distributed with irregular separation distances and have uniform optical characteristics. We developed a new program to generate the coordinates of the controlled microscale random patterns considering their diameter and the distance to the nearest pattern for preventing overlap of each pattern. Then the microscale random patterns were machined on a metal mold using the indentation machining which is a simple and low-cost machining method. We decreased the total machining time by the optimization of machining order of the random patterns. The coordinates, the diameter and the fill-factor of the machined patterns by the indentation machining were much consistent to the designed values. The controlled microscale random patterns had uniform optical characteristics over all areas of the manufactured optical film. Moreover, if optical films have the same diameters and fill-factor, they showed the same optical characteristics even they have totally different coordinates of random microscale patterns. This technology is expected to reduce the number of the optical films and the light sources in the display, which can save much energies.