Photocon
Team members:
- Steven Benedict
- John Chen
- Matt Graeff
- Blake Ipson
- Weston Weige
Advancements in optical science have allowed for medical endoscopes to be made small enough to probe inside the human body. A method of building the optical components small enough to function in these endoscopes is to lithographically etch components into a photopolymer. To create objects on a scale this small, the process must be done quickly so that the optical properties of the photopolymer do not change before the etching is complete. We will prototype a system that uses a semiconductor laser to lithographically etch micrometer scale objects. A computer will act as an interface for the user and load the vector file into the system. The system will then extract the vectors, focus the laser at the corresponding coordinates in the photopolymer, and produce a lithographically etched object.