近日，美国麻省理工学院的Jelena Notaros及其研究团队取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们利用硅光子技术实现芯片基3D打印机。相关研究成果已于2024年6月6日在国际知名学术期刊《光：科学与应用》上发表。

据悉，想象一下，如果仅通过一个光子芯片，人们便能在短短几秒内，在你的掌心创造出一个3D物体。尽管3D打印已经彻底革新了现代社会在几乎各个领域内的创造方式，但目前的3D打印机仍需依赖庞大复杂的机械系统来逐层添加材料。这在一定程度上限制了打印速度、分辨率、便携性、尺寸规格以及材料的多样性。尽管近期在开发新型基于光固化的3D打印机方面有所进展，这些打印机采用先进技术利用光将液体树脂转化为固体物体，但它们仍然未能摆脱对庞大复杂机械系统的依赖。

为了解决这些限制，该研究团队在硅光子学和光化学领域取得突破，成功提出了首个基于芯片的3D打印机。该系统仅由一个毫米级光子芯片组成，没有任何移动部件，它可以将可重构的可见光全息图发射到一个简单的固定树脂井中，从而实现非机械3D打印。此外，研究人员还通过实验展示了基于芯片的3D打印机的立体光刻概念验证版本，该版本利用可见光光束导向集成光学相控阵和可见光固化树脂，首次实现了基于芯片系统的3D打印。

这项工作展示了迈向下一代3D打印机高度紧凑，便携和低成本解决方案的第一步。研究人员提出并展示了第一台基于芯片的3D打印机，该打印机由硅光子学芯片组成，该芯片可将非机械可重构光束发射到光固化树脂中，从而实现未来紧凑，便携式和低成本的下一代3D打印机。

附：英文原文

Title: Silicon-photonics-enabled chip-based 3D printer

Author: Corsetti, Sabrina, Notaros, Milica, Sneh, Tal, Stafford, Alex, Page, Zachariah A., Notaros, Jelena

Issue&Volume: 2024-06-06

Abstract: Imagine if it were possible to create 3D objects in the palm of your hand within seconds using only a single photonic chip. Although 3D printing has revolutionized the way we create in nearly every aspect of modern society, current 3D printers rely on large and complex mechanical systems to enable layer-by-layer addition of material. This limits print speed, resolution, portability, form factor, and material complexity. Although there have been recent efforts in developing novel photocuring-based 3D printers that utilize light to transform matter from liquid resins to solid objects using advanced methods, they remain reliant on bulky and complex mechanical systems. To address these limitations, we combine the fields of silicon photonics and photochemistry to propose the first chip-based 3D printer. The proposed system consists of only a single millimeter-scale photonic chip without any moving parts that emits reconfigurable visible-light holograms up into a simple stationary resin well to enable non-mechanical 3D printing. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate a stereolithography-inspired proof-of-concept version of the chip-based 3D printer using a visible-light beam-steering integrated optical phased array and visible-light-curable resin, showing 3D printing using a chip-based system for the first time. This work demonstrates the first steps towards a highly-compact, portable, and low-cost solution for the next generation of 3D printers. We propose and demonstrate the first chip-based 3D printer, consisting of a silicon-photonics chip that emits non-mechanically-reconfigurable beams into photocurable resin, enabling future compact, portable, and low-cost next-generation 3D printers.

DOI: 10.1038/s41377-024-01478-2

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-024-01478-2