Experimental and numerical investigations on microstereolithography of ceramics

Microstereolithography (μSL) uses laser light to solidify UV-curable resin mixed with concentrated ceramic powders. During the μSL process, the light scattering from the particle suspension is found to significantly influence the fabrication resolution in both lateral and depth dimensions which are critical for the complex three-dimensional (3D) microfabrication. In this work, we performed Monte Carlo simulations and experimental studies to understand the detailed microscale optical scattering, chemical reaction (polymerization), and their influence on critical fabrication parameters. As a result, it was found that due to the scattering, the fabricated line is wider in width and smaller in depth compared with polymeric fabrication at the same condition. The doping technique that we used substantially reduced the light scattering, which in turn enhanced the fabrication precision and control. In addition, the experimental values of curing depth and radius agreed reasonably well with the theoretical modeling. When a laser beam was focused to the diffraction limit, an ultimate linewidth resolution with ceramic μSL was found at about 2.6 μm.