Round-robin testing of commercial two-photon polymerization 3D printers

Abstract

Since its introduction in the 1980s, 3D printing has advanced as a versatile and reliable tool with applications in different fields. Among the available 3D printing techniques, two-photon polymerization is regarded as one of the most promising technologies for microscale printing due to its ability to combine a high printing fidelity down to submicron scale with free-form structure design. Recently, the technology has been enhanced through the implementation of faster laser scanning strategies, as well as the development of new photoresists. This paves the way for a wide range of applications, which has resulted in an increasing number of available commercial systems. This work aims to provide an overview of the technology capability by comparing three commercial systems in a round-robin test. To cover a wide range of applications, six test structures with distinct features were designed, covering various aspects of interest, from single material objects with sub-micron feature sizes up to multi-material millimeter-sized objects. Application-specific structures were printed to evaluate surface roughness and the stitching capability of the printers. Moreover, the ability to generate free-hanging structures and complex surfaces required for cell scaffolds and microfluidic platform fabrication was quantitatively investigated. Finally, the influence of the numerical aperture of the fabrication objective on the printing quality was assessed. All three printers successfully fabricated samples comprising various three-dimensional features and achieved submicron resolution and feature sizes, demonstrating the versatility and precision of two-photon polymerization direct laser writing. Our study will facilitate the understanding of the technology maturity level, while highlighting specific aspects that characterise each of the investigated systems.

Topics & Concepts