STTR Phase I: 3D Lithography of Thick Photopolymers for Imaging and Photonic Crystal Waveguides

小企业技术转让研究（STTR）第一阶段项目将展示一种创新的3D光刻新形式，用于制造成像阵列和厚光聚合物中的光子晶体波导，这些光聚合物更便宜，性能更高，更轻，更灵活，并且具有当前“堆叠和绘制”制造不可能的功能。厚光聚合物响应于具有自显影折射率结构的3D光学曝光，通常与吸收的能量成比例。 传统的掩模投影光刻无法解决这些厚体积。 在这个项目中，掩模的图像垂直于聚合物表面投影，并通过任意长的聚合物样品平移。 一个不变的掩模将写入折射率不变的波导阵列或光子晶体光纤。 这些光子晶体光纤不需要大的折射率对比度，与光聚合物的性质相匹配。包括空间光调制器或掩模旋转的动态掩模将能力扩展到沿其长度沿着具有绝热变化的复杂波导。 拟议的项目将评估导波结构的潜在属性，他们的能力，轻型抬头显示器，并将证明所提出的光刻方法的可行性。成像阵列作为当前的内窥镜，光纤面板和图像转换器的替代品具有显着的商业潜力。 所提出的技术还能够用于新的市场应用，包括用于公共安全应用的廉价眼睛监测、用于光标控制的人机界面的可穿戴凝视跟踪、市场研究以及残疾人轮椅的控制。该技术还可用于军事应用，用于制造非侵入式、嵌入式框架的平视显示器。

The Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project will result in the demonstration of an innovative new form of 3D lithography to be used for fabricating imaging arrays and photonic-crystal waveguides in thick photopolymers that are cheaper, higher performance, lighter, more flexible and have capabilities that are not currently possible with current "stack and draw" manufacturing. Thick photopolymers respond to 3D optical exposure with a self-developing index structure, typically proportional to absorbed energy. Traditional mask-projection lithography cannot address these thick volumes. In this project, the image of the mask is projected perpendicular to the surface of the polymer and translated through an arbitrarily long polymer sample. An unchanging mask will write translational-invariant waveguide arrays or photonic crystal fibers. These photonic crystal fibers do not require large index contrast, matching the properties of photopolymers. Dynamic masks including spatial light modulators or mask rotations extend the capability to complex waveguides with adiabatic variations along their length. The proposed project will evaluate the potential properties of the guided-wave structures, their capabilities for lightweight heads-up displays, and will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed lithography method.The imaging arrays have significant commercial potential as replacements for current endoscopes, fiber faceplates and image converters. The proposed technology is also enabling for new market applications including inexpensive eye monitoring for public safety applications, wearable gaze tracking for human-computer interface for cursor control, market studies, and control of wheel chairs for the handicapped. The technology also has application for military applications for the fabrication of non-intrusive, eyeglass frame embedded heads-up displays.