MRI: Acquisition of 3D Lithography System with Sub-Micrometer Resolution

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This award provides support for the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) to acquire a 3D Direct Laser Writing (3D-DLW) Lithography System with sub-micrometer resolution, which will be installed in the shared-user, open-access cleanroom facilities of the Marcus Nanotechnology Building (MNB). Using two-photon polymerization, the proposed 3D-DLW system can write arbitrarily-shaped, three-dimensional patterns into light-sensitive polymer films with a lateral resolution down to 150 nm. The tools, thus, complements optical and e-beam lithography tools available at Georgia Tech, which can only write two-dimensional patterns with feature sizes down to 1µm and 10nm, respectively. The cleanroom in the MNB is part of Georgia Tech's Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN) and open not only to Georgia Tech researchers, but also outside users from academia and industry, as part of the NSF-funded National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) program. Installing this 3D Direct Laser Writing Lithography System in a major, open-access cleanroom facility in the US, enables access to state-of-the-art 3D patterning capability with sub-micrometer resolution not only for researchers from Georgia Tech, but also external users from academia, industry, and government labs. Together with the existing cleanroom tool set, the 3D-DLW system will enable fabrication of a wide variety of 3D micro- and nanostructures and their integration into devices and systems. Georgia Tech's Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology will offer workshops on the applications and capabilities of the 3D lithography tool to promote the system to undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty and researchers from industry. The PI and his Co-PIs will embed modules using the 3D-DLW system into courses taught at Georgia Tech. Finally, education modules based on 3D lithography will be developed for elementary, middle, and high schools. With the 3D Direct Laser Writing Lithography System's unique ability to write true 3D patterns with sub-micrometer resolution, the goal is to catalyze a broad spectrum of research activities in areas such as photonics and micro-optics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), microsystems and microfluidic components for regenerative medicine, cell biology and tissue engineering, multifunctional nanomaterials, as well as optical and mechanical metamaterials. Thereby, the material choice for the 3D structures is not only limited to an increasing number of (light-sensitive) polymers, but can be extended using templating and thin-film coating techniques to include, e.g., metals and inorganic dielectrics. Fifteen faculty members spanning six schools across Georgia Tech's College of Engineering and College of Sciences, as well as from neighboring Emory University have identified research and training uses for this 3D-DLW system.