Chapter 8 - Micropatterning with a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Projector

Abstract

Photolithography has been applied to biological applications such as cell and protein micropatterning and the fabrication of microfluidic channels. However, the preparation of photomasks for projecting micropattern lighting images is often time consuming and costly. Therefore, we have developed maskless photolithography devices by modifying the optics of commercially available liquid crystal display (LCD) projectors from extended to reduced projection. The developed second and third devices produce practically a centimeter-scale micropattern by dividing an original large mask pattern into several patterns, which are individually and synchronously exposed to substrates with a motorized XY-stage, applying them to cell micropatterning and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic device production. The first part of this chapter describes the developments of the maskless photolithography devices. The second part describes the exposure control system with a motorized XY-stage. The third part describes the applications of devices to cell micropatterning. The last part describes the application of the devices to the fabrication of the PDMS microfluidic channel. Maskless photolithography with an LCD projector has a large advantage with no requirement for a photomask. In particular, the maskless photolithography devices show a greater power by optimizing the conditions of pattern size and shape.