Modeling and Simulation of a Massively Parallelized Multiphoton Polymerization 3D Microfabrication Process

While additive manufacturing based on multiphoton polymerization is currently considered to be a very promising technique for the fabrication of 3D micro- and nanostructures, long fabrication times are a major limitation of this approach. Parallelization of the fabrication process is an important technique to overcome this issue. The fabrication process is parallelized by imaging a 1920 x 1080 pixel spatial light modulator into an ultrasensitive triplet-triplet annihilation resist. However, proximity effects between close pixels generate uncontrolled polymerization and make the controlled fabrication of 3D structures difficult. This work models light propagation and chemical interactions in the system to predict fabricated structures with a view to precompensating plot data and improving 3D resolution by performing optical and chemical proximity correction. A simple model gives reasonable predictions of fabricated structures helping us fabricate fully 3D structures in parallel. While multiphoton polymerization allows the fabrication of 3D nanostructures, long fabrication times are a major limitation of this approach. Imaging a spatial light modulator overcomes this issue. However, proximity effects between close pixels make the controlled fabrication of 3D structures difficult. This work aims to predict fabricated structures with a view to precompensating plot data and improving resolution.image (c) 2023 WILEY-VCH GmbH