Volume 14, Issue 50 1803585
Communication

Designable 3D Microshapes Fabricated at the Intersection of Structured Flow and Optical Fields

Rodger Yuan

Rodger Yuan

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

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Maxwell B. Nagarajan

Maxwell B. Nagarajan

Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

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Jaemyon Lee

Jaemyon Lee

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

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Joel Voldman

Joel Voldman

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

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Patrick S. Doyle

Corresponding Author

Patrick S. Doyle

Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Yoel Fink

Corresponding Author

Yoel Fink

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
First published: 21 October 2018
Citations: 19

Abstract

3D structures with complex geometric features at the microscale, such as microparticles and microfibers, have promising applications in biomedical engineering, self-assembly, and photonics. Fabrication of complex 3D microshapes at scale poses a unique challenge; high-resolution methods such as two-photon-polymerization have print speeds too low for high-throughput production, while top-down approaches for bulk processing using microfabricated template molds have limited control of microstructure geometries over multiple axes. Here, a method for microshape fabrication is presented that combines a thermally drawn transparent fiber template with a masked UV-photopolymerization approach to enable biaxial control of microshape fabrication. Using this approach, high-resolution production of complex microshapes not producible using alternative methods is demonstrated, such as octahedrons, dreidels, and axially asymmetric fibers, at throughputs as high as 825 structures/minute. Finally, the fiber template is functionalized with conductive electrodes to enable hierarchical subparticle localization using dielectrophoretic forces.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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