FMSG: Cyber: Nanoscale Single Photon 3D Printing at Scale

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This grant supports research that contributes new knowledge related to a nanomanufacturing process, promoting both the progress of science and advancing national prosperity and security. Three-dimensional printing or 3D printing is the process of creating three-dimensional (3D) objects from a digital computer model. It has been widely used for applications ranging from product visualization to making engineered parts. Nanoscale 3D printing is useful for making miniaturized structures and devices and can enable new product functions for many applications. However, the common 3D nanoprinting methods are slow and costly because they typically rely on serial point-by-point scanning of an expensive laser beam. This award supports fundamental research to provide the needed knowledge for the development of a fast nanoscale 3D printing method, which uses a low-cost compact light source, similar to that used in laser pointers, and digital light projection for high-throughput fabrication of 3D nanostructures. The single photon 3D nanoprinter’s potential use spans applications in information technology, communications, energy, healthcare, and biomedical industries, which benefits the U.S. economy and society. This multi-disciplinary research involves several disciplines including manufacturing, photochemistry, optics, and materials science. The project helps broaden the participation of women and underrepresented groups in research and training and impacts engineering education and development of the future workforce.3D nanostructures have properties and functions exceeding those of bulk structures or even properties traditionally not possible. Printing of 3D nanostructures requires a nonlinear process to locally define high-resolution features. The state-of-the-art is femtosecond laser two-photon polymerization (2PP) process. However, the 2PP process is slow, costly and generates structures with micron-scale resolutions. This research is to fill the knowledge gap in the development of a high resolution, high throughput, low-cost 3D nanoprinter. The research team aims to develop a system that uses a low-cost diode laser and single-photon dosage nonlinearity to achieve 1000 times higher throughput, at least 10 times less cost and 50 nm or less resolutions than those possible with conventional 2PP. The team plans to investigate and understand the nanoscale nonlinear single-photon polymerization process, control the diffusion of inhibiting radicals to prevent unwanted polymerization to improve feature resolution, develop a parallel projection method to print entire nanolayers at a time to speed up the printing throughput, and create a machine learning (ML)-guided digital-twin database that connects the desired functionality of the manufactured parts with the build parameters for its future broad adoption as a cyber 3D nanomanufacturing platform. This project is supported with co-funding from Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) Division in the Engineering (ENG) Directorate, and the Chemistry (CHE) Division in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.