Additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, is revolutionizing the way devices and manufacts are designed and produced, allowing for the creation of complex structures with a broad range of properties and taking advantage of the functionalities of innovative smart materials.
One way to bring 3D additive manufacturing down to the micro scale consist two-photon lithography (also called ‘direct laser writing’), a microfabrication technique that employs non-linear absorption phenomena arising from the use of focused laser to polymerize a photo-sensitive resin in small volume. As the curing of the resist only happens in the focus of the laser, by moving the latter around is possible to fabricate 3D microstructures and pattern surfaces with arbitrary complexity. In addition to the high-resolution achievable in this way, it is possible to design photoresists characterized by diverse functionalities or comprising functional nanofillers so that the printed microstructures have specific functions and can respond to different stimuli.
In our research, we develop novel fabrication methodologies and functional photoresist aimed to the fabrication of smart microdevices and microrobots via two-photon lithography, aiming to prepare integrated structures that take advantage of the synergic combination of structural and functional materials to accomplish complex tasks.
Examples of publications:
- “Facile Handling of 3D Two-Photon Polymerized Microstructures by Ultra-Conformable Freestanding Polymeric Membranes” F.M. den Hoed, A. Ottomaniello, O. Tricinci, L. Ceseracciu, M. Carlotti, P. Raffa, V. Mattoli, Advanced Functional Materials, 2023, doi: 10.1002/adfm.202214409
- “Novel, High-Resolution, Subtractive Photoresist Formulations for 3D Direct Laser Writing Based on Cyclic Ketene Acetals” M. Carlotti, O. Tricinci, V. Mattoli, Adv. Mater. Technol., 2022, 2101590 doi: 10.1002/admt.202101590
- “Two-step MEMS microfabrication via 3D direct laser lithography” O. Tricinci, M. Carlotti, A. Desii, F. Meder, V. Mattoli, SPIE OPTO Proceedings Volume 11696, Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics XIV, 2021, 116960J, doi: 10.1117/12.2579213
