Professor Shih-Chi Chen with Ultraprecise 3-D printing technology

All of us had a mind’s eye picture of a 3D printer moving back and forth across a grid to build up a material, whether it’s a medical device or living artificial tissue.  This piece, however, describes a much faster and less expensive method of 3D printing called “Femtosecond Projection Two-photon Lithography” developed from a collaboration between the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  “By controlling the laser spectrum via temporal focusing, the laser 3-D printing process is performed in a parallel layer-by-layer fashion instead of point-by-point writing. This new technique substantially increases the printing speed by 1,000—10,000 times, and reduces the cost by 98 percent. “  MORE

Image Credit:  Chinese University of Hong Kong