Microscope Projection Photolithography-Enabled Structuring with Subwavelength Resolution

Manufacturing technologies enabling subwavelength structuring are required to meet the increasing demands on the compact integration and miniaturization of optoelectronic products. In the past few decades, a variety of technologies, i.e. electron beam lithography [1], focused ion beam lithography [2] and two-photon polymerization [3], has been developed for advanced manufacturing with resolution beyond the diffraction limit. While possessing this advantage, these techniques always require complex and expensive systems. In addition, the structuring processes are rather slow, which limits their throughput and applications in large-area production. Other techniques such as nanoimprint lithography also attracts great attention due to their high throughput capabilities [4]. However, the master stamp used for this process usually needs to be produced via electron or ion beam lithography, which makes the whole process costly.