3D multi-material printing with light: advanced digital light processing and femtosecond laser stereolithography

Despite the development in various Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques, there still remains a challenge for fabricating complex structures composed of alternating metallic and dielectric structures with high-resolution. Two AM techniques are presented that use light to initiate various chemical reactions to print high-resolution, multimaterial 3D structures: advanced Digital Light Processing (DLP) and Stereolithography (SLA) via multiphoton-reduction. First study demonstrates fabrication of heterogeneous structures using a custom-built DLP printer. By combining an innovative multi-material DLP printing method with studies on carbon-filled composite photopolymers, carbon nanocomposite multi-material structures are 3D printed in a low-cost manner. Second study demonstrates fabrication of high-resolution connected and/or disconnected 3D metallic structures embedded in a dielectric matrix using a femtosecond direct laser writing technique. This technique simplifies the fabrication process, opening new possibilities for multimaterial, multilayer printing application/devices.