Towards 3D Printing of Miniaturized Photonic System

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, refers to the processes for building 3D objects from computer-aided design models via sequential addition of the materials. While being proven to be a powerful tool in fabricating sophisticate 3D structures, transforming AM technologies into economically viable solutions in enabling practical applications still faces a great challenge. The serial nature of the additive building processes results in the inherent speed-accuracy trade-off, which seriously limits the scalability and efficiency of manufacturing functional devices requiring precise control of the fine features. In tackling this challenge, I will present our recent work in developing 3D printing process for rapid fabrication of customized imaging lenses. Motivated by our previous work in creating transformed Luneburg lens operating at the Terahertz frequency, we set to explore the solution for 3D printing optical lenses for visible light. The goal is to increase the fabricating speed without compromising the dimensional accuracy and surface finish of the products. This lens is attached onto a cell phone camera and the colorful fine details of a sunset moth’s wing and the spot on a weevil’s elytra are captured. This work demonstrates the potential of this method to rapidly prototype optical components or systems based on 3D printing.