Additive manufacturing with structure resolution in the nanometer range (NanoADD)

• Subject Area: Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 497362183

As the strongest research university in Baden-Württemberg, Aalen University has two main research areas - Advanced Materials and Manufacturing and Photonics. The main contributor to the photonics research focus is the Center for Optical Technologies (ZOT) - a union of 5 research groups from the university in applied optics. As part of this project, a equipment should be set-up to establish sustainable, oriented research in the field of applied optics. One of the most important profile elements of the ZOT is the development of new technologies in the field of additive manufacturing for optics. For example, a robot-based additive manufacturing platform is being developed as part of the DFG program "Neue Geräte für die Forschung". Or available through a DFG research grant a project for the additive manufacturing of microlenses with the help of electric fields is conducted. But also due to numerous BMBF projects, the ZOT is strongly represented in the area of additive manufacturing of optics on the size scale > 1 µm. If one looks at the future strategic development of the ZOT, it emerges that the ZOT has to expand its activities from the “micro-world” to the “nano-world” in order to be able to influence additional properties of light such as phase or polarization. A gap analysis shows that this increasingly requires knowledge-oriented research, although the needed infrastructure does not exist. For this reason, a manufacturing system is applied for within the scope of this project, which, based on 2 photon polymerization, enables structure resolution in the nanometer range. Such a resolution is necessary for additively manufactured optical components, since this lies in the wavelength of visible light. One point is also to enable an analysis of the manufactured structures, which is why a scanning electron microscope is requested in addition. Another goal of this project is to initiate 6 new DFG proposals based on the infrastructure applied for in order to expand knowledge-based research at the ZOT and thus consolidate the strategic development of the ZOT in the nanoworld. On the one hand, the requested infrastructure is to be combined with ongoing activities in order to address new research questions. In detail, in the area of robot-based additive manufacturing, diffractive optical neural networks and shape-adaptable polymers. On the other hand, 3 new pilot projects are to be considered (partly with cooperation partners) and the basis for DFG proposals is to be developed there as well. For the pilot projects, the potential of additive manufacturing with nanometer structure resolution in combination with nanoimprint lithography will be investigated, the polishing of freeform surfaces will be examined and the expansion into microfluidics will be investigated.

• DFG Programme: Major Instrumentation Initiatives
• Major Instrumentation: Maskenloses Lithografiesystem
• Instrumentation Group: 0910 Geräte für Ionenimplantation und Halbleiterdotierung
• Applicant Institution: Hochschule Aalen - Technik und Wirtschaft
• Leader: Professor Dr. Andreas Heinrich
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Rainer Börret