The first type of scaffolds consisted of microchannels formed by two parallel PDMS blocks, designed to reorient the LC director field in an orthogonal fashion to the PDMS surfaces, thereby inducing a planar alignment between two par��ons (Figure ). The microchannels were fabricated with a constant thickness of 20 µm and a length of 100 µm (Figure ). To determine the effect of the PDMS geometry on the LC alignment, the height (H) or the channel width (W) of these channels were systema�cally varied (Figure ). The effect was assessed by examining the op�cal density (OD) obtained from POM images taken at the centerline of the microchannels and comparing to theore�cal demonstrate that narrower channels result in a predominantly planar alignment parallel to the plane of the substrate. As the channel was widened, alignment perpendicular to the substrate became energe�cally favorable at the center, resul�ng in the central near-zero intensity region observed in both POM and the simulated op�cal experiment. To further quan�fy these orienta�on effects depending on the geometry, we ploted the mean OD as a func�on of the aspect ra�o 𝜂𝜂 = 𝐻𝐻/𝑊𝑊 (24) of the PDMS channel (Figure ). When the width W was held constant at 30 µm (le�), the presence of a polydomain (par�ally induced planar alignment and the pris�ne homeotropic alignment)