Integrated Two-Photon Polymerization With Nanoimprinting for Direct Digital Nanomanufacturing

In this work, we demonstrate the plausibility of integrating two-photon polymerization (TPP) with nanoimprinting for direct, digital nanomanufacturing. TPP offers manufacturing of nanomolds at a low cost, while the nanoimprinting process using the nanomolds enables massively parallel printing of nanostructures. A Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser (800 nm wavelength, 100 fs pulse width, at a repetition rate of 80 MHz) was used to induce TPP in dipentaerythritol pentaacrylate to fabricate the nanoimprinting mold with 400 nm wide line array on a glass substrate. The mold surface was silanized by tridecafuoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyl-1 trichlorosilane to facilitate the detachment of the mold from the imprinted material. This mold was then used to imprint poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA). PEGDA is an important biomaterial for many applications such as tissue scaffolds for cell growth. A spectrophotometer and a scanning electron microscope were used to characterize the materials and nanostructures. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4001661]