LIGA nanofabrication of sub-wavelenght optics

Currently, a reflective polarizer is always used between the backlight units and LCD panels to circumvent this problem; however, the improvement afforded by its use is limited. Because a nano-wire grid polarizer (NWGP) has been demonstrated to be a reflective polarizer. In this study, we fabricated an NWGP using LIGA technology. E-beam lithography and gold electroforming were employed to generate an X-ray mask; deep X-ray lithography was then applied to pattern the closely-packed, sub-micron-size, and high-aspect-ratio NWGP microstructure. The minimum feature size was approximately 0.7um and the height was 6 um (aspect ratio=9). Preliminary measurement results demonstrated that the optical reflection intensity from the substrate was clearly lower when the NWGP structure was applied; additionally, the reflective intensity decreased with increasing NWGP height(due to the month's eye effect). In the near future, the reflective spectrum in the visible light rage will be measured to evaluate the feasibility of using an NWGP to improve the performance of LSCs.