chanelink logo
CHANELINK
한국어

Chip guided beam for new portable 3D printers

834
2024-06-18 15:54:21
번역 보기

Imagine being able to carry a 3D printer with you and quickly create low-cost objects, such as fastening bicycle wheels or parts needed for critical medical surgeries. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Texas at Austin have combined silicon photonics and photochemical technology to successfully develop the first chip based 3D printer, taking a crucial step towards realizing the aforementioned ideas. The relevant paper was published in the latest issue of the journal Light: Science&Applications.

Yelena Natalas, senior author of the paper and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, stated that her team has previously developed an integrated optical phased array system, which uses a series of micro antennas placed on the chip to control the beam of light and move it in a specific direction. The research team aims to explore whether this device can be used to manufacture chip based 3D printers. At the same time, the research team at the University of Texas at Austin demonstrated for the first time a specialized resin that can be rapidly cured using visible light. The two teams hit it off and the first chip based 3D printer emerged.

The 3D printer prototype consists of a single photon chip containing a 160 nanometer thick optical antenna array, and the entire chip can be placed on a coin. The chip can emit reconfigurable beams of light into the synthetic resin trap. When the beam of light shines on it, the synthetic resin trap solidifies into a solid shape and can be fully formed within a few seconds.

The research team points out that this portable 3D printer is expected to be applied in multiple fields. For example, clinical doctors can customize medical equipment for patients, engineers can quickly create prototypes of parts on the job site, and so on.

Source: Science and Technology Daily

관련 추천

  • First 6-inch thin film lithium niobate photonic chip wafer pilot production line

    Recently, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Wuxi Photon Chip Research Institute (CHIPX) located in Binhu District, Wuxi City, has achieved a breakthrough - the first 6-inch thin film lithium niobate photon chip wafer has been produced on China's first photon chip pilot line, and high-performance thin film lithium niobate modulator chips with ultra-low loss and ultra-high bandwidth have been mass-produ...

    06-11
    번역 보기

  • Researchers have successfully developed the world's first superconducting broadband photon detector

    Researchers at the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology in the United States have invented a new structure of a superconducting strip photon detector that can achieve efficient photon detection even in wide strips, and have successfully developed the world's first superconducting wide strip photon detector.The band width of the detector is more than 200 times that of trad...

    2023-11-02
    번역 보기

  • A new approach to 3D printing has been published in a Nature journal

    In the last century, the improvement of mechanical properties of structural metals was mainly achieved through the creation of increasingly complex chemical compositions. The complexity of this ingredient increases costs, creates supply fragility, and makes recycling more complex.As a relatively new metal processing technology, metal 3D printing provides the possibility to re-examine and simplify ...

    2024-11-29
    번역 보기

  • Scientists uncover the HPC potential of advances in communications and global laser light sources

    Thanks to the advent of high performance computing (HPC) for global laser light sources, the optical communications world is on the verge of major change. This revolutionary technology will redefine the way we transmit and receive data, bringing unprecedented speed and efficiency.Optical communication, which uses light to transmit information, has been a cornerstone of our digital world for deca...

    2023-08-04
    번역 보기

  • IoTech shapes the flexible future of 3D printed electronic products

    The rapidly developing IoTech enterprise headquartered in Israel will showcase at LOPEC 2024 how its disruptive digital manufacturing continuous laser assisted deposition technology shapes the future of microelectronics and additive manufacturing.Herv é Javice, co-founder and CEO of ioTech, commented, "We are delighted to be attending the LOPEC exhibition for the first time and showcasing ...

    2024-02-27
    번역 보기