4.6 Article

Fine-tuned grayscale optofluidic maskless lithography for three-dimensional freeform shape microstructure fabrication

Journal

OPTICS LETTERS
Volume 39, Issue 17, Pages 5162-5165

Publisher

OPTICAL SOC AMER
DOI: 10.1364/OL.39.005162

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Funding

  1. National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Korea government (MEST) [2012-0009555, 2012M3A9B2030170, 2010-0017860, 2010-0007612, 2013K2A3A1000110, NRF-2011-35B-D00015]
  2. National Research Foundation of Korea [2012M3A9B2030170, 2010-0007612] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)

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This article presents free-floating three-dimensional (3D) microstructure fabrication in a microfluidic channel using direct fine-tuned grayscale image lithography. The image is designed as a freeform shape and is composed of gray shades as light-absorbing features. Gray shade levels are modulated through multiple reflections of light in a digital micromirror device (DMD) to produce different height formations. Whereas conventional photolithography has several limitations in producing grayscale colors on photomask features, our method focuses on a maskless, single-shot process for fabrication of freeform 3D micro-scale shapes. The fine-tuned gray image is designed using an 8-bit grayscale color; thus, each pixel is capable of displaying 256 gray shades. The pattern of the UV light reflecting on the DMD is transferred to a photocurable resin flowing through a microfluidic channel. Here, we demonstrate diverse free-floating 3D microstructure fabrication using fine-tuned grayscale image lithography. Additionally, we produce polymeric microstructures with locally embedded gray encoding patterns, such as grayscale-encoded microtags. This functional microstructure can be applied to a biophysical detection system combined with 3D microstructures. This method would be suitable for fabricating 3D microstructures that have a specific morphology to be used for particular biological or medical applications. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America

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