Page History

...

Model Removal & Resin Stripping

Manual Interface Finding

...

WARNING: MANUAL INTERFACE FINDING MAY RESULT IN A COLLISION BETWEEN THE SUBSTRATE AND LENS IF DONE IMPROPERLY. IF YOU HAVE CONCERNS, PLEASE CONTACT A STAFF MEMBER BEFORE ATTEMPTING.

Procedure for All Objectives:

1. Load your substrate in a sample holder. If the substrate is thicker or thinner

...

When using the 10X Objective, it is possible to use an alternate method to find an interface and begin printing on nonreflective and/or rough substrates. This method does not work with other objectives and should be used with caution.

1. Load your substrate in a sample holder. If the substrate is thicker or thinner than the holder depth (i.e. 700 microns thick for the Multi-DiLL holder), it is important to measure how much taller or shorter your substrate is.
2. Add resin to your substrate and the objective.
3. Load your sample as you would normally, select the correct holder and click OK.
   1. Do not click Approach Sample.
4. In the advanced camera settings, ensure that the light source is correct for your substrate - for opaque substrates use a Reflective Illumination, but for transparent substrates you will be better served with Transmission Illumination even though this is atypical for the 10Xwith all objectives.
5. Approach the sample with the manual Z control. You may use coarse control initially until you reach a Z-height on the order of 9000um. For thicker substrates, it is recommended to stop earlier, substract your substrate height above the holder from 9000.
   1. During this step you should see the lens contact the resin, it will be very obvious, looking like a bubble moving across the microscope. Keeping Auto Contrast and Auto Exposure.
6. Using the fine control, move the microscope slowly; you should slowly begin to resolve the substrate.
   1. For a 700um thick substrate this is typically a Z-value greater than 9800um.
   2. Turning off auto-contrast and auto exposure can be helpful; ensuring short exposure times but also smaller Gain (<15) will result in a clearer image.
7. Your substrate should eventually come into sharp focus, move the substrate on X and Y until you have identified where you would like to print.
8. Modify your _data.gwl file:
   1. It will contain the line FindInterfaceAt $interfacePos, comment this out by adding "%" before the line
   2. If this line is not removed or commented out, the microscope will lose the position and attempt to automatically find the interface
9. Using the fine control, move the Z axis up another 40um
   1. If your current Z-height is 10,000um, move to 10,040um
   2. Your substrate should be slightly blurry
   3. 40um is only a starting point, your actual application may require a different value
10. Load your print job and begin printing
    1. It may be valuable to have a small object (e.g. a cube) to test the print before starting a longer one. This can help validate your starting point and ensure that your print isn't floating or the laser is focused past your substrate.
11. Once the substrate appears in view, turn off the microscope in Nanowrite and open AxioVision.
12. While AxioVision loads, in the Nanowrite Advanced Settings console type ManualControl and click Submit.
13. On the left hand side of the Manual Control interface is a section with Shutter Control. Set the laser power to a low value, typically 5%
14. With AxioVision loaded, open the shutter. If you see a small white dot, this is the laser. If you cannot see it, you are either too close to the substrate and its focal length is past the surface of your substrate. Alternately, you may be too far from the substrate, however this is typically not the case if you have your substrate in focus.
15. Using the fine Z control, slowly adjust the Z location towards your substrate until the white dot just disappears. Note this Z location - switching the microscope control unit to XYZ mode is helpful for this process as the Manual Control interface is not ideal for this step.
16. Close the Shutter in Manual Control.
17. Close AxioVision and Manual Control. Enable the Nanowrite microscope.
    1. Note: closing AxioVision and renabling the microscope will automatically turn on Auto-Contrast, you may wish to disable this again.
18. Your substrate should eventually come into sharp focus, move the substrate on X and Y until you have identified where you would like to print.
19. Modify your _data.gwl file:
    1. It will contain the line FindInterfaceAt $interfacePos, comment this out by adding "%" before the line
    2. If this line is not removed or commented out, the microscope will lose the position and attempt to automatically find the interface
20. Load your print job and begin printing
    1. It may be valuable to have a small object (e.g. a cube) to test the print before starting a longer one. This can help validate your starting point and ensure that your print isn't floating or the laser is focused past your substrate.

See this short video below which follows the same process:

HTML
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1oj60ROPTQ0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

*Note - the Z values in this video are not necessarily reflective of other prints and should not be used as a reference.~Still under construction~

Applications

• Microfluidics
• Micromechanics
• Biomedical Engineering
• Micro-electro-mechanical systems
• Mechanical metamaterials
• Micro-optics
• Photonic metamaterials and Plasmonics

...