MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a 2-Photon 3D Printer to Advance Discovery in Biology, Medicine, Physics, Material Science and Engineering

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant supports the purchase of a 3D printer capable of printing features ranging from the nanometer (billionth of a meter) scale to the micrometer (millionth of a meter) and centimeter scales. It will accelerate research by enabling the advanced manufacturing of tiny devices and machines, fostering new ideas in biology, medicine, physics, and engineering, and furthering national priorities in these areas.

To build new knowledge of both natural and engineered systems at the molecular and cellular scales, researchers need to manufacture tools that can interface directly with these systems. Traditional additive manufacturing (or "3D printing") can create arbitrarily shaped objects based on computer models, but most existing printers have limited resolution and are unable to fabricate extremely small and complex structures.

This award enables the acquisition of a 3D printer that uses a precision laser beam to print objects from a variety of plastic materials, with feature sizes smaller than human cells. These capabilities will allow researchers to probe cell and tissue behaviors, better understand diseases, enhance chemical reactions, explore the optical, electronic, and thermal properties of materials, and create novel devices and microrobots.

The discoveries made will have applications in energy, healthcare, environmental science, and materials science, with the potential to benefit society and the U.S. economy for years to come. As a unique manufacturing resource in the Midwest, this advanced 3D printer will also inform engineering education, including increasing the participation of students in technical disciplines, through its incorporation into training, workshops, and outreach activities to the regional academic community and K-12 students.

Among the tools capable of achieving submicron feature resolution, conventional semiconductor processing typically yields "flat" topographies. The resolution of even the best conventional 3D printers is two orders of magnitude larger than what is needed to interface with microscopic structures. Two-photon polymerization laser lithography enables rapid prototyping and wafer-scale production of 3D structures with submicron precision.

This technology uses a lower-energy near-infrared laser to solidify the printing material only when photoresin molecules simultaneously absorb the energy of two photons. This 3D printer will create structures ranging from nanometer to millimeter scales across centimeter-sized areas. The diverse research team will (i) fabricate micro-/nanophotonic integrated circuits and optical devices, (ii) explore the fundamental mechanobiology of cells and tissues, (iii) develop stretchable electronics for sensing and measurement, (iv) discover new phenomena in atomically thin materials, and (v) probe the behavior of microswimmers using cell-scale acoustofluidic actuators, among other programs in device physics, transport phenomena, and biology/medicine. Thus, the 3D printer will advance both fundamental and applied research across many fields.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.