EagleEye · A novel 3D printEr for lArGe-area light-based additive manufacturing with uLtra-high rEsolution combining digital light procEssing and two-photon polYmErization
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-12-01 → 2024-11-30
- EU contribution
- €153,487
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
A novel 3D printEr for lArGe-area light-based additive manufacturing with uLtra-high rEsolution combining digital light procEssing and two-photon polYmErization
The EagleEye project aims to develop an advanced 3D printing optical setup to optimize two-photon polymerization (2PP) for large-area processing. In 2PP, tightly focused laser radiation initiates polymerization in photosensitive materials at specific points within the material's volume. This process creates a voxel (volumetric pixel) in regions where the laser intensity exceeds a defined threshold. The nonlinear nature of 2PP allows the voxel to remain confined within the focal volume, with its dimensions determined by the laser intensity. By combining precise laser focusing with accurate beam guidance, 2PP enables the direct fabrication of intricate 3D structures from computer-generated models, achieving feature sizes in the submicron range. Compared to other manufacturing techniques with similar resolution, 2PP offers exceptional design freedom, making it suitable for advanced applications in healthcare, optics, and photonics. However, its inefficiency for large-area processing remains a significant challenge. The precision of 2PP, akin to drawing with a fine pencil, allows for intricate details but makes large-scale structures time-consuming to produce. The EagleEye project addresses this challenge by integrating 2PP with digital light processing (DLP), a lower resolution but efficient printing approach, into a single optical setup. This integration enables a layer-by-layer printing process where DLP creates bulk structures or areas with less detail, while 2PP is reserved for fine-resolution features. Instead of accelerating 2PP, the EagleEye approach applies it selectively where high precision is essential, maintaining its resolution capabilities. Potential applications for the EagleEye setup include Lab-on-Chip systems, such as microfluidic structures, and scaffolds designed to foster superior cell growth and tissue regeneration.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The processing of photosensitive materials upon the exposure of focused femtosecond laser radiation is referred to as two-photon polymerization, a powerful light-based Additive Manufacturing technique to fabricate 3D microstructures with ultra-high resolution. Nonlinear phenomena convert photoresists or resins into the solid phase, whereby the process area is confined to the laser focus in which a solid building block is created with a possible size down to sub-100 nm. In this way, two-photon polymerization enables the direct writing of arbitrary 3D structures by guiding the laser focus through the material. However, the writing scheme of two-photon polymerization is highly time-consuming. Thus, the technique has been unsuitable for large-area manufacturing of real-world products so far. This research aims to engineer a novel, fully automated 3D printer that combines one-photon printing by digital light projection and two-photon polymerization. In this way, the novel 3D printer will allow using the 3D structuring capabilities of two-photon polymerization on a large area. Thus, this project will enable the lab-to-fab transfer of light-based Additive Manufacturing with an ultra-high resolution that will open new pathways to produce novel real-world devices, especially for healthcare. In this context, biodegradable and biocompatible resins will be employed. The efficiency of two-photon polymerization will be further enhanced by digital mask projection using a digital mirror device, the same technique that is used for digital light processing. In addition, the printing process will be optimized using machine learning/artificial intelligence. A software will be developed to set the necessary printing settings. The produced structures will be analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. Finally, the novel 3D printer will be used to manufacture novel real-world devices for tissue engineering and Lab-on-Chip applications that will be characterized and tested afterwards.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101059253
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5140dabe8&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5fc5700f8&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union