METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A FLEXOGRAPHIC PRINTING PLATE FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION PRINTING

1 . A method of manufacturing a flexographic printing plate comprising:

exposing a bottom side of a flexographic printing plate substrate to UV-A radiation for a first exposure time;

exposing a top side of the flexographic printing plate substrate to UV-A radiation through a thermal imaging layer;

exposing the bottom side of the flexographic printing plate substrate to UV-A radiation for a second exposure time;

developing the flexographic printing plate substrate; and

curing the flexographic printing plate substrate,

wherein a sum of the first and second exposure times set a relief depth.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first exposure time is 50 percent of the sum of the first and second exposure times.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the second exposure time is 50 percent of the sum of the first and second exposure times.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first exposure time is in a range between approximately 10 percent and approximately 90 percent of the sum of the first and second exposure times.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the second exposure time is in a range between approximately 90 percent and approximately 10 percent of the sum of the first and second exposure times.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first exposure time is in a range between approximately 10 seconds and approximately 20 seconds.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second exposure time is in a range between approximately 10 seconds and approximately 20 seconds.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the top side of the flexographic printing plate is exposed to UV-A radiation for a period of time in a range between approximately 200 seconds and approximately 1000 seconds.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the flexographic printing plate comprises one or more lines having a width of 10 micrometers or less.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the relief depth is in a range between approximately 150 micrometers and approximately 300 micrometers.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the relief depth is in a range between approximately 20 micrometers and approximately 150 micrometers.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the relief depth is in a range between approximately 300 micrometers and approximately 400 micrometers.

13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

designing a patterned design;

laser-ablating the patterned design into the thermal imaging layer; and

laminating the thermal imaging layer to the flexographic printing plate substrate.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the patterned design comprises a micro mesh, the micro mesh comprising one or more lines having a width of 10 micrometers or less.

15 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

thermally baking the flexographic printing plate substrate at a temperature in a range between approximately 50 degrees Celsius and approximately 60 degrees Celsius for a period of time in a range between approximately 1 hour and approximately 3 hours.

16 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

storing the flexographic printing plate substrate at an ambient temperature.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the flexographic printing plate substrate comprises a PET base layer and a photopolymer layer.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the thermal imaging layer comprises a PET base layer and a laser-ablation coating layer.

19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein developing comprises removing unexposed portions of a photopolymer layer with a washout liquid.

20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein curing comprises exposing the top side of the flexographic printing plate substrate to UV-A radiation followed by exposure to UV-C radiation.