Optically Driven Micromanipulation Tools Fabricated by Two-photon Microstereolithography

Abstract

Light-driven micromanipulators have been developed by two-photon microstereolithography. The manipulators are driven and controlled by optical trapping. The torque of micromanipulator was successfully controlled on the order of femto-newton by adjusting the focal position of the trapped laser beam. Nanotweezers and a nanoneedle with probe tip of diameter 250 nm were fabricated and driven in a liquid. Such remote-controlled manipulation tools provide a unique and effective handling method of biological samples such as living cell, protein and DNA.

Fabrication and Characterization of Three-Dimensional Silver-Coated Polymeric Microstructures

“…[28][29][30] Polymerized methacrylates are known to be more rigid and have better mechanical properties than polymerized acrylates. [31] Epoxides are known to undergo much less shrinkage upon polymerization than (meth)acrylates, so higher fidelity silver-polymer composite microstructures could be produced using an epoxide-based resin.…”

Optimizing Two-Photon Initiators and Exposure Conditions for Three-Dimensional Lithographic Microfabrication.

“…The microchain illustrates the versatility of TPIP and its potential as a fabrication tool for manufacturing microstructures containing inter-locked parts that can be moved or otherwise acted upon independently, as is essential for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microfluidics. [8,29] It is well known that volume shrinkage occurs during the polymerization of acrylates and during the development phase, which can appreciably alter the dimensions and form of the structure. [30,31 ] Accounting for these factors, and in particular, designing material systems which minimize the effects of shrinkage and distortion will greatly facilitate the development of TPIP into an widely-applied microfabrication technique.…”

“…These feature sizes are comparable to those reported by Maruo and Ikuta. [29] It should be noted that the size of the voxel can be further reduced by using high-sensitivity two-photon initiators that can be excited at shorter wavelength, such as 12-14. Knowledge of how to control the voxel size and how to obtain reproducible features should expand the potential of TPIP as a microfabrication tool.…”

Biochemical IC Chips Fabricated by Hybrid Microstereolithography

“…For the further improvement of resolution, we have developed two-photon IH process [11][12][13][14]. In the two-photon IH process, a liquid photopolymer absorbs two photons of near infrared simultaneously in a single quantum event whose energy corresponds to the UV region.…”

“…The 3D resolution has attained to 430 nm in our latest fabrication system [10]. To obtain further higher resolution and yield rate, two-photon IH process was recently developed [11][12][13][14][15] and subsequently refined by other groups [16,17]. In the two-photon IH process, a near infrared pulsed laser beam is used to generate two-photon-initiated polymerization, in contrast to UV or blue laser beam used in conventional microstereolithography.…”