ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- Printing three dimensional objects with incredibly fine details is now possible using “two-photon lithography”.
With this technology, tiny structures on a nanometer scale can be fabricated. This opens up completely new areas of application, such as in medicine.
“Until now, this technique used to be quite slow”, says Professor Jürgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna.
“The printing speed used to be measured in millimeters per second – our device can do five meters in one second.” In two-photon lithography, this is a world record.
This amazing progress was made possible by combining several new ideas. “It was for instance crucial to improve the control mechanism of the mirrors”, says Jan Torgersen (TU Vienna). The mirrors are continuously in motion during the printing process.
The acceleration and deceleration-periods have to be tuned very precisely to achieve high-resolution results at a record-breaking speed.
Because of the dramatically increased speed, much larger objects can now be created in a given period of time. This makes two-photon-lithography an interesting technique for industry, states Vienna University.
(picture: Vienna University)
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