Advective Phenomena in Continuous Flow Lithography Around Pillars

Abstract

Manufacturing techniques for micron-scale polymer structures has gained renewed interest in the last decade. The usefulness of these structures is illustrated through examples of modern applications. Flow lithography is then introduced as a high-throughput method for producing such structures. Manufacturing limits for CFL, a variant of flow lithography, are not well-explored. An experimental apparatus to probe these limits is designed and constructed. CFL around posts is performed in a series of experiments to observe velocity-induced deformations in polymerized shapes. One type of deformation - reduction in leading-edge length of the structure - is measured in several trials and modeled as a function of flow properties, monomer solution properties, and light properties. The model is evaluated, and suggestions for improvement are offered.