Architecture on a grain of sand

摘要

3D Printing is now the subject of intense R&D throughout academia. At the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna), for example, researchers have recently reported solid progress in speeding up the 'two-photon lithography' process which involves fabricating tiny structures on a nanometre scale in order to print three dimensional objects with incredibly fine details. Researchers have now made a major breakthrough in speeding up this printing technique. . The TU Vienna 3D printer uses a liquid resin which is ' hardened at precisely the correct spots by a focused laser beam. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by moving mirrors and leaves behind a polymerized line of solid polymer, just a few hundred nanometres wide. This high resolution enables the creation of intricately structured sculptures as tiny as a grain of sand.