Microlens array fabricated by a low-cost grayscale lithography maskless system

Aristizabal, Sergio Lopera; Cirino, Giuseppe A.; Montagnoli, Arlindo Neto; Sobrinho, Aparecido Arruda; Rubert, José Benaque; Hospital, M.; Mansano, Ronaldo Domingues

doi:10.1117/1.oe.52.12.125101

Cited by 31 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Only a few methods ( e.g. , grayscale photolithography − or scanned beam lithography) − could satisfy such stringent requirements, generally at a high cost. Most of them require chemical development processes.…”

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confidence: 99%

Grayscale Nanopixel Printing at Sub-10-nanometer Vertical Resolution via Light-Controlled Nanocapillarity

Kim

2020

ACS Nano

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Nanotextures play increasingly important roles in nanotechnology. Recent studies revealed that their functionalities can be further enhanced by spatially modulating the height of their nanoscale pixels. Realizing the concept, however, is very challenging as it requires “grayscale” printing of the nanopixels in which their height is controlled within a few nanometers as a micrometric function of position. This work demonstrates such a high vertical and lateral resolution grayscale printing of polymeric nanopixels. We realize the height modulation by exploiting the discovery that the capillary rise of certain photopolymers can be optically controlled to stop at a predetermined height with sub-10-nm accuracy. Microscale spatial patterning of the control light directly extends the height modulation into a two-dimensionally patterned, grayscale nanopixel printing. Its utility is verified through readily reconfigurable, maskless printing of grayscale nanopixel arrays in dielectric and metallo-dielectric forms. This work also reveals the highly nonlinear and unstable nature of the polymeric nanocapillary effect, expanding its understanding and application scope.

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confidence: 99%

Grayscale Nanopixel Printing at Sub-10-nanometer Vertical Resolution via Light-Controlled Nanocapillarity

Kim

2020

ACS Nano

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“…The focusing and imaging performance of diffractive lens depends on the form accuracy and surface nish of its feature. Many methods for the manufacture of diffractive lens arrays have been extensively investigated, including laser direct writing [5][6][7], focused ion beam [8], and photolithography [9]. By increasing the number of orders, the optical properties of the multiorder diffractive optical elements fabricated by lithography can be obviously improved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication Large-scale Diffractive Lens Arrays on Chalcogenide Glass by Means of Step-and-Repeat Hot Imprinting and Non-Isothermal Glass Molding

Yang

Chen

Zhou

et al. 2021

Preprint

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In this study, a new cost-effective and high-precision process chain for the fabrication of large-scale diffractive lens arrays on chalcogenide glass is proposed. First, a positive diffractive lens array is fabricated on a PMMA master substrate by employing a step-and-repeat hot imprinting process. The direct hot imprinting can transfer the microstructures from a heated mold to the polymer substrate accurately. Repeating the hot imprinting process according to a predetermined path, the desired diffractive lens array is obtained. Unlike photolithography and electron-beam writing, which are expensive technologies with sophisticated process, the hot imprinting is an easier, cheaper and more eco-friendly method for fabricating diffractive features with continuous profile. Afterwards a casting process is applied to create a PDMS mold with the negative features. The diffractive lens array with continuous profile is successfully transferred from the master substrate to the PDMS elastomer, which is used as a mold for subsequent precision glass molding. Finally, the microstructures of PDMS mold are replicated to the chalcogenide glass by non-isothermal glass molding. In this process, the mold and workpiece are set at different temperatures. The PDMS mold at low temperature maintains enough rigidity, so as to press the features into the softened chalcogenide glass more easily, which is at relatively higher temperature, resulting in a positive high-fidelity diffractive lens array on the chalcogenide glass. Surface profiles and optical performance of the fabricated components are characterized quantitatively. Results showed that large-scale diffractive lens array with continuous profile can be successfully fabricated on Chalcogenide glass by this proposed process chain with high quality and integrity.

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“…Recently, maskless photolithography has been proposed for microstructure fabrication [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. A digital micro-mirror device (DMD) has been adopted to replace the traditional physical mask.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of Micro-Optics Elements with Arbitrary Surface Profiles Based on One-Step Maskless Grayscale Lithography

et al. 2017

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A maskless lithography method to realize the rapid and cost-effective fabrication of micro-optics elements with arbitrary surface profiles is reported. A digital micro-mirror device (DMD) is applied to flexibly modulate that the exposure dose according to the surface profile of the structure to be fabricated. Due to the fact that not only the relationship between the grayscale levels of the DMD and the exposure dose on the surface of the photoresist, but also the dependence of the exposure depth on the exposure dose, deviate from a linear relationship arising from the DMD and photoresist, respectively, and cannot be systemically eliminated, complicated fabrication art and large fabrication error will results. A method of compensating the two nonlinear effects is proposed that can be used to accurately design the digital grayscale mask and ensure a precise control of the surface profile of the structure to be fabricated. To testify to the reliability of this approach, several typical array elements with a spherical surface, aspherical surface, and conic surface have been fabricated and tested. The root-mean-square (RMS) between the test and design value of the surface height is about 0.1 μm. The proposed method of compensating the nonlinear effect in maskless lithography can be directly used to control the grayscale levels of the DMD for fabricating the structure with an arbitrary surface profile.

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Microlens array fabricated by a low-cost grayscale lithography maskless system

Cited by 31 publications

References 20 publications

Grayscale Nanopixel Printing at Sub-10-nanometer Vertical Resolution via Light-Controlled Nanocapillarity

Grayscale Nanopixel Printing at Sub-10-nanometer Vertical Resolution via Light-Controlled Nanocapillarity

Fabrication Large-scale Diffractive Lens Arrays on Chalcogenide Glass by Means of Step-and-Repeat Hot Imprinting and Non-Isothermal Glass Molding

Fabrication of Micro-Optics Elements with Arbitrary Surface Profiles Based on One-Step Maskless Grayscale Lithography

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