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Original linked MIT article[1] has a little better explanation of how this light beam is controlled. The researchers use electrical signals to nonmechanica
by smusamashah 2y ago
Original linked MIT article[1] has a little better explanation of how this light beam is controlled.
The researchers use electrical signals to nonmechanically steer the light beam, causing the resin to solidify wherever the beam strikes it.
the researchers used liquid crystal to fashion compact modulators they integrate onto the chip. The material’s unique optical properties enable the modulators to be extremely efficient and only about 20 microns in length.
A single waveguide on the chip holds the light from the off-chip laser. Running along the waveguide are tiny taps which tap off a little bit of light to each of the antennas.
The researchers actively tune the modulators using an electric field, which reorients the liquid crystal molecules in a certain direction. In this way, they can precisely control the amplitude and phase of light being routed to the antennas.
[1] https://news.mit.edu/2024/researchers-demonstrate-first-chip-based-3d-printer-0606 https://news.mit.edu/2024/researchers-demonstrate-first-chip...
- kunalgupta 2y agoperfect thank you
- sandworm101 2y agoSo this is more of a 3d printer head rather than a proper 3d printer? It would still need external moving parts to handle the resin and such.
- neltnerb 2y agoCorrect, the resin is not part of the chip. It controls the phase of the light as well as the intensity, which is novel compared to a galvo. The paper suggested holographic curing, which sounds like a joke but it seems is a real thing where they use three photons to cure and controlling phase lets them do that somehow. But it's only kind of mentioned offhand, so I'm not sure how serious they are about it.
- timschmidt 2y agoSounds similar to what these guys are up to: https://xolo3d.com/ https://xolo3d.com/ They have a novel photoinitiator which requires light from two different wavelengths to initiate polymerization. They currently scan a plane of laser light through a static resin vat while projecting a 2D video through the same vat.
- neltnerb 2y agoLooks very cool, thanks! Yeah, that's the kind of thing I mean, it sounds like there are a few ways to do it. The paper cites https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.3c01263 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.3c01263 which is triplet even, though who knows what the research group would do if they actually implemented it...
- xg15 2y agoFrom what I got, it replaces the printer head plus the entire positioning assembly of the head. It's still not the entire printer, but it would massively simplify the mechanical construction.
- phkahler 2y agoSo it's a non-mechanical galvanometer replacement for steering a laser. Very cool, but that's like one small part of a 3D printer. Also wonder if it can steer in 2 dimensions, or if you need 2 of these, or is that not possible? Can it be used for ILDA laser shows?
- kvemkon 2y agoSubmitted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40627113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40627113.