Highly Scalable Mastering and Roll-to-Roll Processing of Tuned Spectral Absorbers

Infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) allows detection of toxic and combustible materials from distant bases, aircrafts, and even space. Accurate material identification using long-range IRRAS requires large-area calibration targets to account for changing environmental conditions. Plasmonic metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) stacks with nearly perfect, tunable absorption peaks have been demonstrated in small, lab-scale demonstrations. Despite their promise, plasmonic MDM absorbers large enough to be used as remote calibration targets would be virtually impossible to manufacture using traditional nanofabrication techniques, which would require weeks, months, or even years to pattern an area of one square meter. Smart Material Solutions, Inc. (SMS) overcomes this previously insurmountable obstacle with its patented technology – nanocoining. Nanocoining is more than 500 times faster than competing technologies and can create seamless drum molds for scalable roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing. In Phase I, SMS will partner with Professor Mark Mirotznik in the University of Delaware Department of Electrical Engineering to simulate, design, and fabricate tuned plasmonic MDM spectral absorbers using nanocoining. The Phase I Option will allow SMS and MicroContinuum, Inc. to design a R2R setup for R2R manufacturing of these absorbers. The vision for Phase II is to fabricate a meter-scale plasmonic MDM absorber using R2R processing with MicroContinuum.