Optical 3D Printing Sharper Future: Optical Fabrication with Rapid 3D Printing

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A new 3D printing method, known as blurred tomography, could significantly improve the production of microlenses with commercial-level optical quality. This innovative approach allows for the quick and efficient manufacturing of various optical devices, creating optically smooth surfaces and complex shapes.

Canadian researchers have developed a new 3D printing method called blurred tomography that can quickly produce microlenses with commercial-level optical quality. The new method may make it easier and faster to design and fabricate a variety of optical devices.

"We purposely added optical blurring to the beams of light used for this 3D printing method to manufacture precision optical components," said Daniel Webber from the National Research Council of Canada. "This enables the production of optically smooth surfaces."

In Optica, Optica Publishing Group's journal for high-impact research, these researchers demonstrate the new method by using it to make a millimeter-sized plano-convex optical lens with an imaging performance similar to a commercially available glass lens. They also show that the method can produce optical components that are ready to use in just 30 minutes.

"We anticipate this method to be valuable for cost-effective and swift prototyping of optical components due to the affordability of the tomographic 3D printer and the materials used," said Webber. "Also, the inherent freeform nature of tomographic 3D printing could enable optical designers to simplify designs by replacing multiple standard optics with printed optics that have complex shapes."

Smoothing out the Edges

Tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing is a relatively new manufacturing approach that uses projected light to solidify a light-sensitive resin in specific areas. It allows an entire part to be printed at once without any support structures. However, existing tomographic methods cannot directly print imaging-quality lenses because the pencil-like beams used cause striations that lead to small ridges on the component’s surface. Although post-processing steps can be used to create smooth surfaces, these approaches add time and complexity, which detracts from the rapid prototyping advantage associated with tomographic printing.

"Fabricating optical components is expensive due to the strict technical specifications needed for a functional lens, as well as the complex and time-consuming manufacturing process," says Dr. Webber. "Blurred tomography can be used to create freeform designs in a cost-effective way. As the technology matures, it could allow for much faster prototyping of new optical devices, which would be beneficial for everyone from commercial manufacturers to garage-based inventors."

Creating Tiny Lenses

Creating Tiny Lenses

They also created a 3x3 array of microlenses using blurred tomography and compared it to an array printed with traditional tomographic 3D printing. They found that it was impossible to image a business card with the array printed using traditional means due to significant surface roughness, but this could be done with the array printed with blurred tomography. Furthermore, the researchers demonstrated the overprinting of a ball lens onto an optical fiber, which was previously only achievable using a two-photon polymerization additive manufacturing technique.

They are now working to improve component accuracy by optimizing the light patterning method and incorporating material parameters into the printing process. They also want to automate the printing time to make the system robust enough for commercial use.

"Tomographic 3D printing is a rapidly evolving field finding applications in many areas," Webber said. "Here, we are leveraging the intrinsic advantages of this 3D printing method to fabricate millimeter-sized optical components. In doing so, we have added a rapid, cost-effective alternative to the repertoire of optical manufacturing techniques, which could potentially influence future technologies."

Paper: D. Webber, Y. Zhang, K. L. Sampson, M. Picard, T. Lacelle, C. Paquet, J. Boisvert, A. Orth, “Micro-optics Fabrication using Blurred Tomography,” 11, 5 (2024). DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.519278.