Panacol will feature new optical grade resins and adhesives for imprint and optical bonding applications at the SPIE Photonics West exhibition in San Francisco CA, USA from 30 January to 1 February 2024. These new adhesives can be used for light carpets in the automotive industry, for sensors in smart devices and wearables, or for creating structured light in projectors or time-of-flight sensing applications.
An epoxy resin adhesive is used as imprint material for nano structures on a glass wafer. Image Credit: Panacol
Panacol specially formulated adhesives for imprint replication of refractive lenses and diffractive optical elements (DOEs). These adhesives are suitable for micro- and nano-imprint lithography, wafer level optics, and wafer bonding. The newly introduced adhesives Vitralit® UC 1632 and Vitralit® UC 1658 are in the viscosity range of 100 to 200 mPas and can thus be easily applied via puddle dispensing, spin-coating or jetting. They offer excellent adhesion to commonly used grades of glass wafers and upcoming new polymer substrates including optical grade PET or PC. Once applied and imprinted, the adhesives are quickly cured with UV light, creating a precise and durable structure on the wafer. Both adhesives are tailored specifically to meet the high demands of optical reliability, such as low yellowing, temperature stability, and shape retention.
For black shading and masking purposes, Panacol also offers a black UV curable adhesive, Vitralit® BL UC 1103. This black epoxy adhesive is permeable to UV light while uncured. After curing it is opaque and light blocking.
For optical bonding and alignment, Panacol has developed UV curable adhesives Vitralit® 7311, Vitralit® VBB-60, and Vitralit® 1860, as well as heat curable adhesives Structalit® 5531 and Structalit® 5511. These adhesives feature high adhesion to glass and widely used plastic substrates. Adhesive Vitralit® UD 8057 is formulated for dual curing using UV/visible light and atmospheric moisture. This allows the adhesive to complete its curing using moisture in shaded areas that cannot be reached with UV/visible light.
These adhesives for optical bonding get easily cured with high intense LED curing systems of Hönle, which perfectly match the wavelengths of the Panacol photoinitiators. Once cured, Panacol’s optical grade adhesives are flexible and tension equalizing, reducing the stress on dissimilar substrates.