The Fabrication of Micro Beam from Photopolymer by Digital Light Processing 3D Printing Technology.

Ishak Ertugrul

doi:10.3390/mi11050518

Abstract

3D printing has lately received considerable critical attention for the fast fabrication of 3D structures to be utilized in various industrial applications. This study aimed to fabricate a micro beam with digital light processing (DLP) based 3D printing technology. Compound technology and essential coefficients of the 3D printing operation were applied. To observe the success of the DLP method, it was compared with another fabrication method, called projection micro-stereolithography (PμSL). Evaluation experiments showed that the 3D printer could print materials with smaller than 86.7 µm dimension properties. The micro beam that moves in one direction (y-axis) was designed using the determined criteria. Though the same design was used for the DLP and PμSL methods, the supporting structures were not manufactured with PμSL. The micro beam was fabricated by removing the supports from the original design in PμSL. Though 3 μm diameter supports could be produced with the DLP, it was not possible to fabricate them with PμSL. Besides, DLP was found to be better than PμSL for the fabrication of complex, non-symmetric support structures. The presented results in this study demonstrate the efficiency of 3D printing technology and the simplicity of manufacturing a micro beam using the DLP method with speed and high sensitivity.

Highlights

The micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) is a process technology comprising of miniaturized mechanical and electronic parts, that includes the transformation of a measured mechanic signal into a readable signal
MEMS has been improved for different implementations for example force, navigation, optical transmitting, radio frequency, biological and medical, microfluidics, and gyroscope applications [2,3,4,5,6]
MEMS technologies have been manufactured by traditional methods such as lithography, galvano forming, and photolithography etc

Summary

Introduction

The micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) is a process technology comprising of miniaturized mechanical and electronic parts, that includes the transformation of a measured mechanic signal into a readable signal. MEMS technologies have been manufactured by traditional methods such as lithography, galvano forming, and photolithography etc These methods are dependent on additive or subtractive procedures that operate minuscule capacities of materials in the shape of thin layers on the surface of silicon wafers [12,13,14,15,16]. MEMS devices in atmospheric air without the need for multiple operations and cleanrooms [19,20] Due to such advantages, it is possible to use 3D printing technology for micro beam fabrication. Among the different 3D printing techniques, the digital light processing (DLP) technique using photocurable resins is appealing, since it can be used to manufacture a single layer of the 3D object through spatially-controlled solidification using a projector light [48] This light produces benefits such as fast fabrication, high sensitivity, and surface quality.

Digital Light Processing Method

PμSL Method

Findings

Fabrication with the DLP Method