Beam alignment with the axis of a rotation stage for laser fabrication of microcircular structures

Abstract

An optical technique to align laser beam with the axis of a rotating stage is proposed for laser fabrication of circular microstructures. The laser beam is first aligned parallel to the rotation axis and subsequently adjusted to coincide with the axis. An optical arrangement consisting of two quadrant photodiodes for the x- and y-directions and a specially designed beam splitter is utilized for the alignment. Mathematical modeling of the alignment system is carried out to estimate alignment errors caused by misalignment of mirror surfaces in the beam path. It is shown that parallelness of the laser beam to the rotation axis is a key factor to reduce alignment errors. The proposed method was applied to a microstereolithography system and proved that the laser beam can be aligned within a distance of about 25 μm from the rotation axis. © 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.