A chip-based 3D printer that negates the need for moving parts could enable fast prototyping on the go.
The device, small enough to fit onto a US quarter, would allow users to rapidly create customised, low-cost objects in a range of settings, such as to repair a broken bike.
The prototype consists of a single millimetre-scale photonic chip that emits reconfigurable beams of light into a well of resin that cures into a solid shape when light strikes it.
Using an array of tiny optical antennas to steer a beam of light into the rapid-cure resin, the prototype combines silicon photonics with photochemistry to print arbitrary 2D patterns.
Chip produced using semiconductor processes
The device was produced by researchers at MIT’s Notaros group, who had previously developed integrated optical-phased-array systems that steer beams of light using a series of microscale antennas fabricated on a chip using semiconductor manufacturing processes. By speeding up or delaying the optical signal on either side of the antenna array, the beam of emitted light can be moved in a certain direction.
The group worked with the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) who had demonstrated specialised resins that can be rapidly cured using wavelengths of visible light.
“With photocurable resins, it is very hard to get them to cure all the way up at infrared wavelengths, which is where integrated optical-phased-array systems were operating in the past for lidar,” said Sabrina Corsetti, lead author of a paper published in Light Science and Applications.
Their prototype consists of a single photonic chip containing an array of 160nm-thick optical antennas. When powered by an off-chip laser, the antennas emit a steerable beam of visible light into the well of photocurable resin. The chip sits below a clear slide, like those used in microscopes, which contains a shallow indentation that holds the resin.
A liquid crystal modulates the light beam
The researchers use electrical signals to non-mechanically steer the light beam, causing the resin to solidify wherever the beam strikes it. Instead of heating the chip to modulate the visible wavelength light, the researchers used liquid crystal to fashion compact modulators they integrated onto the chip. The material’s unique optical properties enabled the modulators to be extremely efficient and only about 20 microns in length.
A single waveguide on the chip holds the light from the off-chip laser. Running along the waveguide are tiny taps which allow a little bit of light to each of the antennas. The researchers actively tune the modulators using an electric field, which reorients the liquid crystal molecules in a certain direction. In this way, they can precisely control the amplitude and phase of light being routed to the antennas.
The groups worked closely to carefully adjust the chemical combinations and concentrations of the resin to hone a formula that provided a long shelf-life and rapid curing. In practice, the prototype was able to print shapes in a matter of seconds.
Credit for main image: Sampson Wilcox, RLE
