Hot embossing techniques are used to engrave patterns on plastic substrates. Roll based hot embossing uses a heated roll for a continuous process. A heated roll with relief patterns is impressed on a preheated plastic substrate. Then, the substrate is cooled down quickly to prevent thermal shrinkage. The roll speed is normally very slow to ensure substrate temperature increase up to the glass transition temperature. In this paper, we propose a noncontact preheating technique using focused infrared light. The infrared light is focused as a line beam on a plastic substrate using an elliptical mirror just before entering the hot embossing roll. The mid range infrared light efficiently raises the substrate temperature. For preliminary tests, substrate deformation and temperature changes were monitored according to substrate speed. The experiments show that the proposed technique is a good possibility for high speed hot embossing.