Online quality assurance of microchannels in roll-to-roll by optical coherence tomography

Abstract Roll-to-roll (R2R) process is an emerging technology to manufacture printed electronics, microfluidics, biochemical sensors etc. The requirements for high quality and small tolerances at the manufacturing phase are of the essence for such products. To verify the quality and guarantee the high production yield, high speed, non-destructive testing methods are needed. In this paper, optical coherence tomography (OCT) device is used at the R2R-line to measure online hot embossed microchannel structures at speed of 1 m/min, which is typical for the hot embossing process. The channel’s width and shape are determined along the web. The applicability of OCT for topography measurements is demonstrated in an actual R2R environment