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Applications

Direct Laser Writing (DLW) by means of Photonic Professional laser lithography systems paves the way for a new dimension: The third dimension! The unique ability to structure in 3D with sub-micrometer feature sizes in supreme quality opens up a multitude of applications. The analog to rapid prototyping or 3D printing on the micro- and nanometer scale is particularly valuable for these exemplified areas of application:

• 3D Photonics:
  Photonic crystals, metamaterials, light directors, circular polarizers, photonic band gap structures, photonic quasicrystals, photonic wire bonds, photonic color
• 3D Scaffolds and Biomimetics:
  Cell migration and stem cell differentiation studies, life sciences, tissue engineering, scaffolds for cells, artificial extracellular matrices (ECM), hierarchical structures, Gecko effect
• 3D Microfluidics:
  Lab-on-a-chip systems, embedding of mixer and filter elements into microfluidic channels, micro-needles for drug delivery, rheology
• 3D Mechanical Microstructures:
  Ultralight materials, mechanical metamaterials, auxetic materials, pentamode structures, tunable Poisson’s ratio, e.g. negative values
• 3D Micro Rapid Prototying:
  The trend towards higher packaging and integration density calls for miniaturized parts. Here, the ability for size miniaturization is displayed.
• 2.5D Micro-Optics:
  Micro-lens arrays of complex shape, aspheric lenses, stacked micro-optics, refractive and diffractive optical elements (DOEs), micro-prisms, phase masks, micro optical devices, integrated optics, optical communication, Fresnel lenses
• 2.5D Free Form Surfaces:
  Free form surfaces for, e.g., data glasses and complex micro-optics, calibration samples, micro-ring resonators
• 2D Photonics:
  Distributed feedback lasers (DFB lasers), diffractive optical elements (DOEs), metamaterials, photonic waveguides and waveguide couplers
• Casting:
  DLW-fabricated three-dimensional structures can be used as templates for casting. Technologies of replication and inversion into metals, semiconductors and oxides have been demonstrated. Molding into PDMS is also shown.

Examples of research activities and results achieved with this technique can be found in more than 60 publications.