REAL-TIME SYNTHESIS AND MANIPULATION OF PHOTOPOLYMERIZED MICROSTRUCTURES USING OPTOFLUIDIC MASKLESS LITHOGRAPHY AND OPTICAL TWEEZERS

Abstract

We report on a microfluidic platform for real-time synthesis, manipulation, and assembly of free-floating heterogeneous polymeric microstructures.We generate polymeric microparticles with various sizes, shapes, and composition using in-situ photopolymerization process with a dynamic spatial light modulator, and manipulate their relative positions and orientations using an optical tweezer for particle transportation, sorting, assembly, and reordering.Rapid prototyping of composite polymeric structures by assembling smaller microstructures with different shapes and materials is experimentally demonstrated.The integration of optical tweezers and maskless lithography with the microfluidic channels enables dynamic particle generation and manipulation in a single compact platform.