Patent ID: 8367306

Claim:
A system for forming a plurality of polymer waveguides, the system comprising: at least one collimated light source for producing a plurality of collimated light beams; a channel with an exposure area for the collimated light beams to pass through and for containing a volume of photo-monomer adapted to polymerize when exposed to the collimated light beams, the photo-monomer moving with respect to the plurality of collimated light beams; a first squeegee like dam for defining a side of the volume of photo-monomer when in contact with a mask or a substrate onto which the photo-monomer is applied, wherein the first squeegee-like dam can be lifted or retracted to allow batch formation of the plurality of polymer waveguides; and the mask disposed between the at least one collimated light source and the channel, the mask extending along a plane and having at least one aperture adapted to guide a first beam, a second beam and a third beam of the collimated light beams into the photo-monomer to respectively form and grow a first polymer waveguide, a second polymer waveguide and a third polymer waveguide of the polymer waveguides in a portion of the photo-monomer, wherein the mask is configured to move with the photo-monomer and the polymer waveguides in a first direction across the exposure area, and the system is configured to continuously grow the plurality of polymer waveguides to form a micro-truss structure having a length in the first direction that is independent of a size of the exposure area.