Micro-fabrication of high-aspect ratio three-dimensional micro-components

A new stereo-photolithography technique to create three-dimensional microcomponents using a planer, layer-by-layer, process of exposure has been developed. With this procedure it is possible to build components with dimensions in the range of 50 microns to 50mm, with feature sizes as small as a few microns. This newly developed system consists of eight elements: a Computer Aided Design environment supporting solid or surface modeling; a resin bath, with an integrated high resolution translation stage and component build platform; an ultraviolet laser light source, operating at 351.1 nm; an optical shutter; a diffractive optical element designed to re-distribute the irradiance of the laser beam from a Gaussian to a top-hat profile; a polysilicon thin film twisted nematic SVGA resolution (800x600) spatial light modulator; a multi-element lithographic reduction lens system; and a comprehensive control system. In this paper, the experimental set-up is described and some examples of the microcomponents fabricated by the system are shown.