Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method comprising inspecting a mold for a defect; determining a type of defect present on the mold; sorting the mold by type of defect present; treating the mold with a cleaning process that is suitable to remove the defect; and pressing the mold against a polymeric film to produce a series of defect free light management films; wherein the yield of light management films manufactured from the mold is higher than the yield of light management films that are produced from a comparative mold that has not been treated with the cleaning process.

Abstract: A system for the inspection of and a process for the correction of defects in a microreplicated optical display film manufacturing process. The process steps of manufacturing a master, a plurality of shims from the master, and a multiplicity of display films from each shim are integrated with a systemic defect identification and correction process. Each primary manufacturing step has its own inspection system and correction process where defect information for that step of the process is fed back and analyzed; and from that analysis the subprocess is adjusted to eliminate or reduce the detected defect. The systemic defect is identified as to its source and then fed back and analyzed in the correction step of the respective subprocess in order to cure the root of the defect.