Multimaterial 3D laser microprinting using an integrated microfluidic system

Polymers for Regenerative Medicine Structures Made via Multiphoton 3D Lithography

Multiphoton 3D lithography is becoming a tool of choice in a wide variety of fields. Regenerative medicine is one of them. Its true 3D structuring capabilities beyond diffraction can be exploited to produce structures with diverse functionality. Furthermore, these objects can be produced from unique materials allowing expanded performance. Here, we review current trends in this research area. We pay particular attention to the interplay between the technology and materials used. Thus, we extensively discuss undergoing light-matter interactions and peculiarities of setups needed to induce it. Then, we continue with the most popular resins, photoinitiators, and general material functionalization, with emphasis on their potential usage in regenerative medicine. Furthermore, we provide extensive discussion of current advances in the field as well as prospects showing how the correct choice of the polymer can play a vital role in the structure’s functionality. Overall, this review highlights the interplay between the structure’s architecture and material choice when trying to achieve the maximum result in the field of regenerative medicine.

Functional Metallic Microcomponents via Liquid-Phase Multiphoton Direct Laser Writing: A Review

We present an overview of functional metallic microstructures fabricated via direct laser writing out of the liquid phase. Metallic microstructures often are key components in diverse applications such as, e.g., microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Since the metallic component's functionality mostly depends on other components, a technology that enables on-chip fabrication of these metal structures is highly desirable. Direct laser writing via multiphoton absorption is such a fabrication method. In the past, it has mostly been used to fabricate multidimensional polymeric structures. However, during the last few years different groups have put effort into the development of novel photosensitive materials that enable fabrication of metallic-especially gold and silver-microstructures. The results of these efforts are summarized in this review and show that direct laser fabrication of metallic microstructures has reached the level of applicability.

Functional Materials for Two-Photon Polymerization in Microfabrication

Direct laser writing methods based on two-photon polymerization (2PP) are powerful tools for the on-demand printing of precise and complex 3D architectures at the micro and nanometer scale. While much progress was made to increase the resolution and the feature size throughout the years, by carefully designing a material, one can confer specific functional properties to the printed structures thus making them appealing for peculiar and novel applications. This Review summarizes the state-of-the-art of functional resins and photoresists used in 2PP, discussing both the range of material functions available and the methods used to prepare them, highlighting advantages and disadvantages of different classes of materials in achieving certain properties.

3D microfluidics via cyclic olefin polymer-based in situ direct laser writing

In situ direct laser writing (isDLW) strategies that facilitate the printing of three-dimensional (3D) nanostructured components directly inside of, and fully sealed to, enclosed microchannels are uniquely suited for manufacturing geometrically complex microfluidic technologies. Recent efforts have demonstrated the benefits of using micromolding and bonding protocols for isDLW; however, the reliance on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) leads to limited fluidic sealing (e.g., operational pressures <50-75 kPa) and poor compatibility with standard organic solvent-based developers. To bypass these issues, here we explore the use of cyclic olefin polymer (COP) as an enabling microchannel material for isDLW by investigating three fundamental classes of microfluidic systems corresponding to increasing degrees of sophistication: (i) "2.5D" functionally static fluidic barriers (10-100 μm in height), which supported uncompromised structure-to-channel sealing under applied input pressures of up to 500 kPa; (ii) 3D static interwoven microvessel-inspired structures (inner diameters < 10 μm) that exhibited effective isolation of distinct fluorescently labelled microfluidic flow streams; and (iii) 3D dynamically actuated microfluidic transistors, which comprised bellowed sealing elements (wall thickness = 500 nm) that could be actively deformed via an applied gate pressure to fully obstruct source-to-drain fluid flow. In combination, these results suggest that COP-based isDLW offers a promising pathway to wide-ranging fluidic applications that demand significant architectural versatility at submicron scales with invariable sealing integrity, such as for biomimetic organ-on-a-chip systems and integrated microfluidic circuits.

Hybrid Laser Printing of 3D, Multiscale, Multimaterial Hydrogel Structures

Fabrication of multiscale, multi-material three-dimensional (3D) structures at high resolution is difficult using current technologies. This is especially significant when working with hydrated and mechanically weak hydrogel materials. In this work, a new hybrid laser printing (HLP) technology is reported to print complex, multiscale, multimaterial, 3D hydrogel structures with microscale resolution. This technique of fabrication utilizes sequential additive and subtractive modes of material fabrication, that are typically considered as mutually exclusive due to differences in their material processing conditions. Further, compared to current laser writing systems that enforce stringent processing depth limits, HLP is shown to fabricate structures at any depth inside the material. As a proof-of-principle, a Mayan Pyramid with embedded cube-frame is printed using model synthetic polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogel. Printing of ready-to-use open-well chips with embedded microchannels is also demonstrated using PEGDA and gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels for potential applications in biomedical sciences. Next, HLP is used in additive and additive modes to print multiscale 3D structures spanning in size from centimeter to micrometers within minutes, which is followed by printing of 3D, multi-material, multiscale structures using this technology. Overall, this work demonstrates that HLP's fabrication versatility can potentially offer a unique opportunity for a range of applications in optics and photonics, biomedical sciences, microfluidics, soft robotics, etc.

A facile multi-material direct laser writing strategy

Direct laser writing (DLW) is a three-dimensional (3D) manufacturing technology that offers vast architectural control at submicron scales, yet remains limited in cases that demand microstructures comprising more than one material. Here we present an accessible microfluidic multi-material DLW (μFMM-DLW) strategy that enables 3D nanostructured components to be printed with average material registration accuracies of 100 ± 70 nm (ΔX) and 190 ± 170 nm (ΔY) - a significant improvement versus conventional multi-material DLW methods. Results for printing 3D microstructures with up to five materials suggest that μFMM-DLW can be utilized in applications that demand geometrically complex, multi-material microsystems, such as for photonics, meta-materials, and 3D cell biology.