Stereo‐thermal‐lithography: a new principle for rapid prototyping

A new fabrication process for rapid prototyping is proposed in this paper. Optical and thermal effects are simultaneously used in this process to locally induce a phase change in a liquid resin. This phase change phenomena is used to “write” three‐dimensional shapes or patterns. Such objects or patterns can involve macroscopic engineering prototypes through to nanostructures for exploitation in waveguiding and photonic crystals. Several advantages can be achieved through this new process, in terms of accuracy, cost and time.