Supplementary Figure 5: Micro-fabrication process for the device comprising 45° mirroring surfaces and potentially microwells.
From: 3D high- and super-resolution imaging using single-objective SPIM
(a) Micro-fabrication process for an index-matched UV-curable polymer chip displaying microwells flanked by 45° metallized mirroring surfaces. Anisotropic wet etching and dry etching processes were sequentially used to create 45° surfaces and microwells, respectively, within a silicon wafer (i,ii). A PDMS replica of this wafer was created (iii) and used to reproduce the wafer shape on a coverslip in a UV-curable polymer via a capillary filling process (iv,v). After the PDMS replica was peeled off (vi), the polymer surface was metallized with a gold layer by thermal evaporation in vacuum (vii). The 45° mirrors were then protected by an additional layer of polymer using a capillary filling process (viii), and the unprotected metal was removed by wet etching (ix). (b) Fabrication process for millimeter-sized 45° mirrors in polymer. A right-angle glass prism flanked by two PDMS sheets was replicated in UV-curable polymer (i–iii) The polymer replica of the right-angle prism imprint was peeled off (iv) and metallized by thermal evaporation under vacuum (v). The right-angle prism imprint was finally sealed onto a coverslip ready for imaging. Lower panels: schematic representation of the multiview rotation stage and picture of the multiview rotation stage displaying the rotation motor, the capillary containing the embryos and the 45° millimeter-sized mirror sealed onto a coverslip. (c) Atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization of the surface roughness of a UV-curable and metallized 45° mirror created as described in a and the Online Methods. Left, AFM 3D profile of a 45° mirror made in UV-curable polymer and coated with gold. Right, line profile along the dashed line in the left-hand panel. The roughness root mean square of the 45° surface was determined to be 13.27 nm.
