Define and measure the dimensional accuracy of two-photon laser lithography based on its instrument transfer function

Abstract

Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a powerful technique for direct three-dimensional (3D) micro- and nanomanufacturing owing to its unique ability of writing almost arbitrary structures of various materials. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to quantitatively define and measure the dimensional accuracy of TPP tools based on the concept of instrument transfer function (ITF). A circular linear-chirp pattern is designed for characterizing the ITF. Such a pattern is arranged in a linear chirp function with respect to its radial distance from the pattern centre, thus, well representing a signal with a quasi-flat amplitude over a given spectral bandwidth. In addition, the pattern is rotational symmetric, therefore, it is well suited for characterizing the ITF in different angular directions to detect angular-dependent asymmetries. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated on a commercial TPP tool. The manufactured pattern is calibrated by a metrological large range atomic force microscope (AFM) using a super sharp AFM tip, thus the dimensional accuracy and angular-dependent anisotropy of the TPP tool have been well characterized quantitatively. The proposed method is easy to use and reveals the dimensional accuracy of TPP tools under real manufacturing conditions, which concerns not only the optical focus spot size of the exposing laser but also influencing factors such as material shrinkage, light–matter interaction and process parameters.