This application relates generally to photofabrication. More specifically, this application relates to diffraction unlimited photofabrication methods, systems, devices, and materials.
Photofabrication, and more specifically photolithography, can be limited by diffraction. In order to form smaller and smaller features, one generally can resort to using shorter wavelengths of light or increasing the numerical aperture of the lenses used in a photofabrication system. While these two approaches can reduce the diffraction limit, they also can come with increasing costs.
Alternative techniques have been developed to try to get beyond the diffraction limitations found in photofabrication. Two photon and threshold approaches can provide avenues to decreasing feature size. However, these too have problems. Techniques using two photon photoresists, for example, can be inefficient. Furthermore, two photon photoresists may not be conducive to projection-based photolithography techniques using masks. Threshold approaches also face problems because they can rely on being a function of a summation of patterns, which can put limits on decreasing feature size.