In order to break the rigidity of classic lithographic techniques, a flexible pyro-electric-electrohydrodynamic (EHD) inkjet printing is presented. In particular, here is showed a method able to manipulate highly viscous polymers, usable for optical integrated devices. The system proposed reaches spatial resolution up to the nano-scale and can print, for instance, nano-particles and high viscous polymer solutions. This technique allows writing patterns directly onto a substrate of interest in 2D or in 3D configuration and is studied in order to overcome limitations in terms of type of materials, geometry and thickness of the substrate. In the present work, we show the potential of pyro-EHD printing in fields as optics and micro-fluidics. A micro-channel chip is functionalized with a PDMS-made micro-lenses array, directly printed on the chip. The geometric properties and the quality of the lenses are evaluated by a Digital Holography (DH) analysis.

Date Published: 26 June 2017
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 10329, Optical Measurement Systems for Industrial Inspection X, 103294Q (26 June 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2272552

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10329:
Optical Measurement Systems for Industrial Inspection X
Peter Lehmann; Wolfgang Osten; Armando Albertazzi Gonçalves Jr., Editor(s)