Fabrication of large-scale micro-structures by two-photon polymerization with a long-stroke precision stage

Abstract

This article demonstrates the fabrication of large-scale micro-structures by two-photon polymerization with an integrated long-stroke precision stage. We first design a three-axial stage that combines a piezoelectric transducer stage and a stepper-motor stage, and we apply gain-scheduling and robust control with a feedforward compensator to achieve nano-positioning within a travel range of 10 cm. We then integrate the precision stage with a two-photon polymerization module to manufacture large-scale micro-structures, including 1 mm linear gratings, 1 cm parallel lines, and 200 mm Fresnel zone plates. We further define performance indexes to evaluate the qualities of these products: the linear gratings achieve an image error of 4.73%, while the 1 cm lines have an average error of 0.2 mm with a standard deviation of 0.05 mm, and the Fresnel zone plates attain a focal error of 0.4% and a focus efficiency of 64%. These results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed use of the precision stage and two-photon polymerization for large-scale micro-structure manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing of precision optics at micro and nanoscale

“…Among 3D printing technologies, it has been demonstrated that multiple photon polymerization (MPP) has the highest resolution in comparison to other printing techniques (around 100 nm or less) [21,69,71]. Research in resolution improvement of mesoscale lenses fabricated by MPP is limited to process improvements by controlling parameters [72,73] and developing new resins [74][75][76], new systems [16,64,[77][78][79], or laser scanning algorithms [80,81].…”

Development of a dual-stage and visual-servo filming robot

“…The dual-stage structure had been widely utilized in precision positioning stages, where the lower stage provides the large stroke, yet course positioning, and the upper stage provides the short stroke, yet precision positioning. 2–4 In our case, the dual-stage structure is designed for fast response rather than precision positioning. The lower stage is composed of a tracked robot, so the motion range is not confined like other systems composed of a positioning stage.…”