Three-dimensional printing of glass micro-optics

Abstract

The present invention features a liquid, solvent-free, silica precursor and two-photon 3D printing process to meet the increasing needs of high-precision glass micro-optics and address the major limitations of current three-dimensional (3D) printing optics. The printed optical elements may be fully converted to transparent inorganic glass at temperatures as low as 600° C. with shrinkages as low as 17%. The present invention includes a complete process chain, from material development, printing process, and performance evaluation of the printed glass micro-optics. 3D printing of glass micro-optics with isotropic shrinkage, micrometer resolution, low deviation peak-to-valley value (<100 nm), and low surface roughness (<6 nm) has been demonstrated. The present invention enables the rapid fabrication of complex glass micro-optics previously impossible using conventional glass optics fabrication processes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.