Holographic 3D printing with phase, or position of light waves
Unlike traditional TVAM 3D printing, which encodes information in the amplitude (height) of projected light waves, a holographic method takes advantage of the phase, or position
Researchers from EPFL’s Laboratory of Applied Photonic Devices, led by Christophe Moser, and from the University of Southern Denmark Centre for Photonics Engineering, led by Jesper Glückstad, have reported a Tomographic Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (TVAM) method in Nature Communications that significantly reduces the amount of energy required to fabricate objects, while simultaneously boosting resolution. The technique involves projecting a three-dimensional hologram of a shape onto the spinning vial of resin. Unlike traditional TVAM, which encodes information in the amplitude (height) of projected light waves, the holographic method takes advantage of their phase, or position.
This small change has a big impact. “All pixel inputs are contributing to the holographic image in all planes, which gives us more light efficiency as well as better spatial resolution in the final 3D object, as the projected patterns can be controlled in the projection depth,” said Moser.
In the recently published work, the team printed complex 3D objects such as miniature boats, spheres, cylinders, and art pieces in under 60 seconds with exceptional accuracy, using 25 times less optical power than previous studies.
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