ABSTRACT
The autofocus method has been investigated to improve the precise positioning of a substrate surface at the center of the laser focal spot in two-photon polymerization (TPP) nanofabrication. For this purpose, we developed a novel autofocus method using normalized image size, which was calculated with the second momentum radius (SMR) of two-photon induced fluorescence (TPIF). The SMR of TPIF was theoretically analyzed and experimentally compared with the average intensity of TPIF for various input laser powers. The results show that the proposed method enhanced the precision and robustness of autofocus in TPP. Specifically, the experimental creation of ascending voxel arrays demonstrated both the method's immunity to input laser power change, and a high precision of ±0.045 µm. To test the practical feasibility of the proposed autofocus method, 300 µm×260 µm single-layer honey-comb structures were successfully fabricated with precompensation and dynamic compensation using the proposed autofocus method.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, the improvement of range precision in a laser detection and ranging (LADAR) system by using two Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes (GmAPDs) is described. The LADAR system is implemented by using two GmAPDs with a beam splitter and applying comparative process to their ends. Then, the timing circuit receives the electrical signals only if each GmAPDs generates electrical signals simultaneously. Though this system decreases the energy of a laser-return pulse scattered from the target, it is effective in reducing the range precision. The experimental results showed that the average value of standard deviation of time of flights was improved from 61 mm to 37 mm when the pulse energy is 0.6 µJ. When the time bin width is 0.5 ns, the single-shot precision error of the LADAR system was also improved from 280 mm to 67 mm.
ABSTRACT
We propose a method capable of focusing a laser beam on a substrate automatically via fluorescence detection from the resin of a two-photon nanofabrication system. When two-photon absorption (TPA) occurs by focusing the laser beam in the resin, fluorescence is emitted from the focusing region in the visible range. The total pixel number above the threshold value of the fluorescence images obtained by a CCD camera is plotted on a graph in accordance with the focus position. By searching for the position when the total pixel number undergoes an abrupt change in the pre-TPA region, the correct configuration of the focused laser beam can be found. Through focusing tests conducted at four vertices of a 500 µm x 500 µm square placed arbitrarily inside SCR500 resin, the errors of the autofocusing method were found to range from -100 nm to + 200 nm. Moreover, this method does not leave any polymerized marks. To verify the usefulness of the autofocusing method, the fabrication of a pyramid structure consisting of 20 layers was attempted on a coverglass. It was completely fabricated without losing a layer.
ABSTRACT
We have proposed a novel mobile healthcare platform, combining a pocket-sized colorimetric reader (13.5 × 6.5 × 2.5 cm(3)) and commercially available 10-parameter urinalysis paper strips (glucose, protein, glucose, bilirubin, urobilinogen, ketones, nitrite, pH, specific gravity, erythrocytes, and leukocytes), capable of sending data with a smart phone. The reader includes a novel colorimetric multi-detection module, which consists of three-chromatic light-emitting diodes, silicon photodiodes and a novel poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) optical splitter. We employed data reading methods using conversions of the signal data (red, blue, and green) to the hue (H) color map or the Y model data, and used a curve-fitting method for the quantification. The reader is battery-powered, inexpensive, light-weight, and very speedy in analysis. And, it was applied to detection of a thousand of human urine samples and demonstrated reliable quantification of urinary glucose and protein. The features can be used by unskilled people on-site to transfer the analyzed data to experts off-site.
