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

STTR 第一阶段：用于成像和光子晶体波导的厚光聚合物 3D 光刻

• 批准号: 0637355
• 负责人: Jacob Kuykendall
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Zenwa Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-01-01 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0637355&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; 3D; Lithography; Thick

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.

小型企业技术转移研究（STTR）第一阶段项目将展示一种创新的3D光刻技术，用于制造成像阵列和光子晶体波导的厚光聚合物，这种聚合物更便宜、性能更高、更轻、更灵活，并且具有目前“堆叠和绘制”制造不可能实现的能力。厚的光聚合物对三维光学曝光具有自发展的折射率结构，通常与吸收的能量成正比。传统的掩模投影光刻技术无法解决这些厚的体积。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进行平移。不变掩模可写入平移不变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，与光聚合物的特性相匹配。动态掩模包括空间光调制器或掩模旋转将能力扩展到具有沿其长度绝热变化的复杂波导。拟议的项目将评估导波结构的潜在特性，它们用于轻型平视显示器的能力，并将证明拟议的光刻方法的可行性。作为目前内窥镜、光纤面板和图像转换器的替代品，该成像阵列具有巨大的商业潜力。该技术还将为新的市场应用提供支持，包括用于公共安全应用的廉价眼睛监控、用于光标控制的人机界面的可穿戴凝视跟踪、市场研究和残疾人轮椅控制。该技术还可用于军事用途，用于制造非侵入式、眼镜框架嵌入式抬头显示器。