Roll coating using metered coating roll including deformable layers

A method of coating a patterned structure on a substrate, the method comprising:

• providing a coating roll having a deformable inner layer with a surface thereof covered by a deformable outer layer, the inner layer being softer than the outer layer;
• providing a back-up roll engaging the coating roll to form a nip therebetween;
• providing a substrate to enter the nip and wrap around the back-up roll, the substrate comprising a patterned surface structure on a major surface facing the coating roll, the patterned surface structure including an array of structures having peaks projecting from a base plane of the substrate and troughs formed between the adjacent structures;
• metering a coating material on the coating roll to be transferred to the major surface of the substrate at the nip, wherein metering the coating material comprises
• providing a reverse metering roll to engage with the coating roll, the reverse metering roll and the coating roll spinning in the same direction, and
• controlling an engagement depth between the coating roll and the reverse metering roll to adjust a coating weight of the coating material on the patterned surface structure;
• transferring a coating material from the coating roll to the substrate at the nip to form a coating pattern covering the peaks of the patterned surface structure of the substrate, and
• controlling an engagement depth between the coating roll and the back-up roll to control the conformability of the coating material to the peaks of the array of structures.