Three-Dimensional Microfabrication by Two-Photon Polymerization

For many technologies, smaller is synonymous with better. Shrinking the size of devices brings many advantages: more components per unit area, lower power consumption, lower cost, faster response, and higher performance. An area of research that has affected almost every aspect of society because of device downsizing is microelectronics. Staggering examples of these changes can be found across diverse fields including automotive, computers, communications and medicine. The successful story of microelectronics is based on the development of a set of tools that goes under the name of Integrated Chip (IC) technology and comprises processes such as photolithography and electron beam lithography.1 By means of IC technology, microprocessors with millions of transistors can be routinely fabricated and launched in enormous numbers of calculations per second.

With the increasing complexity of micro/nano-devices needed in most modern applications though, IC technology presents significant limitations.2