Scalable 3D printing of aperiodic cellular structures by rotational stacking of integral image formation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34533994.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abh1200 and PMC identifier 8448457.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The limitation of projection microstereolithography in additive manufacturing methods is that they typically use a single-aperture imaging configuration, which restricts their ability to produce microstructures in large volumes owing to the trade-off between image resolution and image field area. Here, we propose an integral lithography based on integral image reconstruction coupled with a planar lens array. The individual microlenses maintain a high numerical aperture and are used to create digital light patterns that can expand the printable area by the number of microlenses (10<sup>3</sup> to 10<sup>4</sup>), thereby allowing for the scalable stereolithographic fabrication of 3D features that surpass the resolution-to-area scaling limit. We extend the capability of integral lithography for programmable printing of deterministic nonperiodic structures through the rotational overlapping or stacking of multiple exposures with controlled angular offsets. This printing platform provides new possibilities for producing periodic and aperiodic microarchitectures spanning four orders of magnitude from micrometers to centimeters.