MEMS-compatible structuring of liquid crystal network actuators using maskless photolithography

We present a method to structure liquid crystal network actuators based on selectively polymerizing the network without any physical or hard masks in a process compatible with microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. The standard glass-cell filling technique is used to generate the actuator films; subsequently, selected areas are exposed to light and thus polymerized to structure the actuators. No further machining, such as laser cutting, is necessary. The polymerization pattern is defined by projection using a digital micromirror device-based optomechanical setup, with a resolution ranging from 1 to 2 mm. These processes are used to structure photothermally and photochemically stimulated actuators, which may thus be fabricated with high throughput and easily integrated with MEMS devices.

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