Abstract
A 3D printing technique for manufacturing air-clad coherent fiber optic faceplates is presented. The custom G-code programming is implemented on a fused deposition modeling (FDM) desktop printer to additively draw optical fibers using high-transparency thermoplastic filaments. The 3D printed faceplate consists of 20000 fibers and achieves spatial resolution 1.78 LP/mm. Transmission loss and crosstalk are characterized and compared among the faceplates printed from four kinds of transparent filaments as well as different faceplate thicknesses. The printing temperature is verified by testing the transmission of the faceplates printed under different temperatures. Compared with the conventional stack-and-draw fabrication, the FDM 3D printing technique simplifies the fabrication procedure. The ability to draw fibers with arbitrary organization, structure and overall shape provides additional degree of freedom to opto-mechanical design. Our results indicate a promising capability of 3D printing as the manufacturing technology for fiber optical devices.
Highlights
Three-dimensional (3-D) printing, referred to as additive manufacturing or rapid prototyping, is a technique used to fabricate 3-D objects from digital design files [1]
The typical resolution of Fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer is above 100 μm, which is limited by the nozzle diameter
We focus on the capability of FDM 3D printing technique to manufacture fiber optic devices
Summary
Three-dimensional (3-D) printing, referred to as additive manufacturing or rapid prototyping, is a technique used to fabricate 3-D objects from digital design files [1]. SLA and DLP are both photo-polymerization-based printing techniques, which offer a high spatial resolution (< 1 μm with two-photon polymerization), but necessitate photo-polymerizable resin as the printing material. Another class of technique is jet-based printing, including 3-D inkjet [14], PolyJet [15], and selective laser sintering (SLS) [16]. In FDM, layers are fabricated by melting thermoplastic materials in a heated print head, followed by the filament extrusion and deposition layer by layer Besides thermoplastic materials, such as polycarbonate (PC), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and nylon, FDM can print metals and ceramics with the usage of binders. Compact-size FDM machines have become the most prevalent type of consumer-grade 3D printers [18]
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