This technology is a method for cost-effective, nanoscale 3D printing at 10-100nm resolution leveraging photon avalanching nanoparticles.
3D printing is a rapid prototyping technique based on additive manufacturing that is useful in a wide variety of applications. A growing number of these applications require micro- and nanoscale resolution, including the manufacturing of electronic components, nanomaterials, and microfluidic devices. Current methods for high-resolution 3D printing use two-photon polymerization (TPP), in which a photopolymeric resin is irradiated with an expensive, high-power femtosecond pulsed laser to solidify the resin. Additional processing is then required to enhance the spatial resolution of the object, increasing the time and labor required for manufacturing. Although this method can achieve high resolution, it is costly, time- and labor-intensive, and has limited spatial resolution below 100 nm.
This technology is a method for cost-effective, nanoscale 3D printing leveraging photon avalanching nanoparticles (ANPs) embedded within a photopolymeric resin material. When infrared light is focused on the ANP-containing resin, blue/UVA photons are locally emitted that rapidly crosslink polymers within a nanometer of each other, resulting in ultra-high-resolution 3D printing. This method can achieve resolution between 10-100 nm while requiring no post-processing. As such, this technology has the potential to improve the affordability, efficiency, and spatial resolution of current 3D printing methods.
Patent Pending
IR CU23212
Licensing Contact: Greg Maskel