New Sinter-Free Process Can Make Nanometer-Sized, 3D Printed Glass Structures

A new 3D printing process for quartz glass developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is currently causing quite a stir. The team around Dr. Jens Bauer has succeeded in producing a variety of nanometer-scale quartz glass structures by means of 3D printing without any sintering at all. The 3D-printed nanometer-scale quartz glass structures can also be printed directly onto semiconductor chips. This new process in 3D printing of glass opens up many interesting and forward-looking possibilities for high-tech applications, photonics and micro-optics.

The University of Heidelberg and KIT’s Institute of Nanotechnology (INT) have come together to form the Cluster of Excellence 3D Matter Made to Order, whose goal is to bring additive 3D manufacturing processes to the next level. IFT head Dr. Jens Bauer and his research group, with the collaboration of scientists from the University of California Irvine and the medical technology company Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine, have now succeeded in taking a decisive step toward achieving the cluster of excellence’s goals.

Until now, techniques based on sintering have been predominant in 3D printing of quartz glass. However, sintering of silica-based nanoparticles requires heating the material to a temperature of 1100 °C, which is too hot for printing semiconductor chips, for example. It is then not possible to use the printed quartz glass structures in microsystems technology, and therefore no significant technological breakthroughs can be achieved. The new process developed by the research group led by Dr. Jens Bauer requires temperatures that are almost half as high.