Silicon-photonics-enabled chip-based 3D printer (2024)

A compact 3D-printing approach is proposed that replaces bulky, mechanically driven stereolithography systems with a single millimeter-scale silicon-photonics chip that emits reconfigurable visible-light holograms upward into a stationary resin well to directly polymerize volumetric structures. The concept leverages CMOS-scale silicon photonics and integrated optical phased arrays (on-chip antenna arrays with controlled phase and amplitude) to steer and shape light without moving parts, requiring visible-light-curable resins instead of conventional UV-activated chemistries. Key system components and requirements are outlined: a chip at the base of a resin chamber, a modular photosystem matched to visible wavelengths, and holographic projection to enable non-mechanical volumetric printing, promising greatly reduced size, cost, and complexity compared with layer-by-layer printers.

A stereolithography-inspired proof-of-concept demonstrates the idea experimentally using a visible-light integrated optical phased array and visible-light-curable resin. Single voxels were photocured and characterized, showing sub-millimeter feature formation within seconds and a measured relationship between voxel size and exposure time. Non-mechanical beam steering enabled printing of one-dimensional lines and arbitrary two-dimensional patterns without moving parts. The demonstration establishes feasibility of chip-based 3D printing and advances a pathway toward highly portable, low-cost, fast volumetric printers that integrate photonics and photochemistry on a single chip.