Designable 3D Microshapes Fabricated at the Intersection of Structured Flow and Optical Fields

Abstract

3D structures with complex geometric features at the microscale, such as microparticles and microfibers, have promising applications in biomedical engineering, self‐assembly, and photonics. Fabrication of complex 3D microshapes at scale poses a unique challenge; high‐resolution methods such as two‐photon‐polymerization have print speeds too low for high‐throughput production, while top‐down approaches for bulk processing using microfabricated template molds have limited control of microstructure geometries over multiple axes. Here, a method for microshape fabrication is presented that combines a thermally drawn transparent fiber template with a masked UV‐photopolymerization approach to enable biaxial control of microshape fabrication. Using this approach, high‐resolution production of complex microshapes not producible using alternative methods is demonstrated, such as octahedrons, dreidels, and axially asymmetric fibers, at throughputs as high as 825 structures/minute. Finally, the fiber template is functionalized with conductive electrodes to enable hierarchical subparticle localization using dielectrophoretic forces.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 21, 2018
Source ID
10.1002/smll.201803585

Entities

People

  • Jaemyon Lee
  • Joel Voldman
  • Maxwell B. Nagarajan
  • Patrick S. Doyle
  • Rodger Yuan
  • Yoel Fink

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Science Foundation
  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Readers

  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology