Table Of ContentSpringer Series in Optical Sciences 233
Andreas Heinrich Editor
3D Printing
of Optical
Components
Springer Series in Optical Sciences
Volume 233
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AndreasHeinrich
Editor
3D Printing of Optical
Components
Editor
Andreas Heinrich
Center for Optical Technologies
Aalen University
Aalen, Germany
ISSN 0342-4111 ISSN 1556-1534 (electronic)
Springer Series in Optical Sciences
ISBN 978-3-030-58959-2 ISBN 978-3-030-58960-8 (eBook)
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Preface
In recent years, the development of additive manufacturing methods has progressed
rapidly. Much of the earlier work focused on realizing mechanical components. But
additive manufacturing technology also holds great potential in the field of optics
because it offers new degrees of design freedom, which allows completely new
approaches to be explored.
High-precision two-photon polymerization is one example of how optical com-
ponents can be manufactured additively. Among other things, this technique enables
the production of microlenses with complex shapes. These microlenses are charac-
terized by high optical quality and do not require post-processing after being manu-
factured. By contrast, realizing larger optical components or elements with very
different material properties has proven to be a challenge. Conventional 3D-printing
systems are used as an alternative. These systems can be used both to produce trans-
missive optics from glass or plastic and to realize reflective metallic objects. Such
printing systems can be used to develop macroscopic optical elements; however,
they typically achieve lower optical quality than two-photon polymerization.
The objective of this book is to present the current possibilities and characteristic
properties of the additive manufacturing of optical components, as well as the cur-
rent challenges and future prospects of this field. Additive manufacturing is shown
to enable completely new solutions in optics, solutions that can be expected to
become even more diverse in future.
Chapter 1 of this book introduces additive manufacturing, with a particular focus
on conventional 3D-printing processes. The key concepts, typical materials, and
various methods of additive manufacturing are described, and their potential appli-
cations are discussed.
The additive manufacturing of reflectors using the SLM process is presented in
Chap. 2. For each application, the lighting requirements are presented and used to
deduce the design parameters of the product. The light distribution produced by a
macroreflector is simulated and validated as an example. The entire additive manu-
facturing process chain is also examined.
Chapter 3 examines the potential of 3D-printed polymer optics. The key focus of
the chapter is a discussion of several completely different examples of additively
vii
viii Preface
manufactured optics to illustrate the potential and limitations of additive manufac-
turing in this area. The 3D printing of macroscopic optical elements such as light
guides, liquid lenses, luminescent optics, random lasers, and mirror elements is dis-
cussed, as well as the inkjet printing of microscopic lenses. This chapter also exam-
ines the development of new additive manufacturing technologies, such as
robot-based printing and the detuning of inkjet-printed lenses within an electric field.
Chapter 4 discusses the additive manufacturing of glass. Glass has shaped the
optics and photonics like no other material. Once silicate glasses became available
for 3D printing, two main approaches emerged: direct 3D printing of low-melting
glasses at high temperatures and indirect glass printing of glass precursors using
technologies borrowed from polymer 3D printing. This chapter discusses how pre-
cursors can be printed at room temperature then converted into transparent glass by
a heat treatment process.
The high-precision 3D-printing technique of 3D lithography by two-photon or
multi-photon absorption is discussed in Chap. 5. This area has developed signifi-
cantly over the past two decades and opens up new possibilities in a wide variety of
photonic applications. Chapter 5 describes the principles of this process, as well as
the materials that can be used for it. It discusses how this method is not only able to
realize refractive and diffractive optics, but also meta-optics extending from the
sub-micrometer range to the millimeter range. This is demonstrated with printed
optics intended for direct use as well as master models for replication.
Chapter 6 presents direct femtosecond laser writing for the manufacturing of
micro-optical components and systems. This chapter primarily focuses on the
design of such components. A selection of imaging and lighting optics are presented
and discussed to demonstrate the potential of this manufacturing technology.
The quality of additively manufactured optics depends on the properties of the
materials that are used. Accordingly, the final Chap. 7 discusses hybrid polymers.
Hybrid polymers are a class of optical materials that combine the properties of inor-
ganic glass and organic polymers. The properties of such polymers can be specifi-
cally adapted, which is desperately needed when printing micro-optical elements.
This chapter therefore considers the chemical concepts of hybrid polymers, as well
as their synthesis and processing. Applications of hybrid polymers to produce
micro-optical and photonic elements using established water scale processes, inkjet
methods, and direct laser writing with two-photon polymerization are also discussed.
The editor would like to thank all contributors to this book for their remarkable
chapters. Special thanks to Dr. Sam Harrison, Editor at Springer, for his assistance
with the creation of this book, and Mr. Murugesan Tamilsevan, Project Coordinator
at Springer, for his skillful management of the production process.
Aalen, Germany Andreas Heinrich
Contents
1 Introduction to Additive Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Miranda Fateri and Andreas Gebhardt
1.1 Characteristics of Additive Manufacturing Processes . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Additive Manufacturing Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.1 Stereolithography (SLA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.2 Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)/Selective Laser
Melting (SLM)/Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) . . . . . . . 6
1.2.3 Fused Layer Modeling (FLM), Commercially:
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2.4 Powder-Binder Bonding (3DP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2.5 Layer Laminate Manufacturing (LLM)/Selective
Deposition Lamination (SDL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3 Processing Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.4 Characteristics of Additive Manufactured Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2 Selective Laser Melting of Reflective Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Georg Leuteritz, Marcel Philipp Held, and Roland Lachmayer
2.1 Adjusting Optics Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2 Requirements for Reflective Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2.1 Applications for Reflective Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.2 Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2.3 Relation Between Design Parameters and Functionality . . . 26
2.2.4 Reflector Design for Additive Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3 Additive Manufacturing: Selective Laser Melting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4 Additive Manufacturing of a Reflector Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4.1 Design of a Reflector Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4.2 Validation of a Process Configurator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.5 Challenges for SLM of Reflective Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
ix
x Contents
3 3D Printing of Optics Based on Conventional
Printing Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Manuel Rank, Andre Sigel, Yannick Bauckhage,
Sangeetha Suresh-Nair, Mike Dohmen, Christian Eder,
Christian Berge, and Andreas Heinrich
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.2 Materials Used for the Additive Manufacturing of Optics
Using Polymerization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2.1 Photopolymerization Categorized According
to the Reacting Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2.2 Resin Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.3 Analysis of Additively Manufactured Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.3.1 Analysis of the Printing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.3.2 Analysis of the Shape and Surface of Additively
Manufactured Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.3.3 Dip Coating to Improve the Surface of Additively
Manufactured Optical Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.3.4 Analysis of the Optical Properties of Additively
Manufactured Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.4 Additively Manufactured Macroscopic Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.4.1 Light-Guiding Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.4.2 Lens Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.4.3 Liquid Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.4.4 Freeform Lenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.4.5 Volumetric Displays Using Additive
Manufacturing Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.4.6 Additively Manufactured Mirror Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.5 Additively Manufactured Microlenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
3.5.1 Additive Manufacturing of Spherical Microlenses . . . . . . . 105
3.5.2 Individualized Microlenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
3.6 Additively Manufactured Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
3.6.1 Organic LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
3.6.2 Additively Manufactured Optical Converter
and Random Laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
3.6.3 Additive Manufacturing of Photoluminescent Optics . . . . . 121
3.7 New Approaches to the Additive Manufacturing of Optics . . . . . . . 131
3.7.1 Robot-Based Additive Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
3.7.2 DMD-Based Additive Manufacturing
of Optical Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
3.7.3 3D Printing of Multiple Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
3.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
