Improvement of distortion error for fabricating precision microparts using two-photon photopolymerization

Abstract

The manufacturing accuracy of microparts produced using two-photon polymerization depends on the accuracy of control of the positions of the focal spot. The accuracy becomes more important when these microparts need to be assembled into a whole with parts that are free to move in relation to each other. Ideally, the exact location of the movement of the focal spots in an optical system, no matter how complex it may be, can be solved using geometric optics. However, in reality, this is not so easy because of the complexity of optical systems and also due to the imperfections that lie between the design and the physical layout. We thus take a black-box approach such that the optical system is not examined but only the output result, and the command from the system is compared, interpreted and finally calibrated. The result is an extremely simple, yet very effective adaptation of the commanding of the focal spot that only requires the focal spot at the manufacturing plane to be monitored through a digital camera. We have also shown the effectiveness of the proposed method by fabricating a microstructure and measuring the fabrication error, which was found to be less than 3%. © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd.