Inkron, a Nagase Group Company, the global supplier of siloxane-based, optically clear Nano-Imprint Lithography (NIL) materials, makes a strategic investment in NIL materials and components development infrastructure. According to the company, the investment will accelerate Inkron's development of high-performance optical materials needed in critical components of augmented reality (AR) glasses, 3D sensors, and other diffractive optical elements (DOE).

The cornerstone of the investment is the purchase and installation of an EVG7200 automated UV NIL system from EV Group (EVG). The EVG 7200 system leverages EVG's SmartNIL technology and materials expertise to enable mass manufacturing of micro- and nanoscale structures. The system provides low-force and conformal imprinting, ideal high-power exposure, and smooth stamp detachment with suitable throughput and low cost of ownership.

The EVG 7200 system with SmartNIL technology is ideally suited for volume production of next-generation photonic devices including waveguides and DOEs, for applications such as AR and virtual reality (VR). In addition to these features, the tool that has been shipped to Inkron includes a high-intensity UV station, heated chuck, and support for soft-UV-NIL for microlens molding applications.

Inkron offers NIL processable materials in an ideal index of refraction (RI) range even up 2.0. The NIL   materials are complemented with overcoat, gap fill, and planarizing coatings with RI as low as 1.1. The combination of these material platforms and the EVG 7200 system provide an ideal infrastructure for novel optical component development while enabling careful optimization of the resins and the process for specific devices.

 For more information, visit: www.EVGroup.com or www.inkron.com