This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 8970, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and Conference Committee listing.

DARPA’s interest in additive manufacture dates back to the mid-80s with seedling programs that developed the foundational knowledge and equipment that led to the Solid Freeform Fabrication program in 1990. The drivers for this program included reducing development times by enabling “tool-less” manufacturing as well as integration of design and fabrication tools. DARPA consistently pushed the boundaries of additive manufacture with follow-on programs that expanded the material suite available for 3-D printing as well as new processes that expanded the technology’s capability base. Programs such as the Mesoscopic Integrated Conformal Electronics (MICE) program incorporated functionality to the manufacturing processes through direct write of electronics. DARPA’s investment in additive manufacture continues to this day but the focus has changed. DARPA’s early investments were focused on developing and demonstrating the technology’s capabilities. Now that the technology has been demonstrated, there is serious interest in taking advantage of the attributes unique to the processing methodology (such as customization and new design possibilities) for producing production parts. Accordingly, today’s investment at DARPA addresses the systematic barriers to implementation rather than the technology itself. The Open Manufacturing program is enabling rapid qualification of new technologies for the manufacturing environment through the development of new modeling and informatics tools. While the technology is becoming more mainstream, there are plenty of challenges that need to be addressed. And as the technology continues to mature, the agency will continue to look for those “DARPA-hard” challenges that enable revolutionary changes in capability and performance for the Department of Defense.

It is no secret that the laser was the driver for additive manufacturing (AM) of 3D objects since such objects were first demonstrated in the mid-1980s. A myriad of techniques utilizing the directed energy of lasers were invented. Lasers are used to selectively sinter or fuse incremental layers in powder-beds, melt streaming powder following a programmed path, and polymerize photopolymers in a liquid vat layer-by-layer. The laser is an energy source of choice for repair of damaged components, for manufacture of new or replacement parts, and for rapid prototyping of concept designs. Lasers enable microstructure gradients and heterogeneous structures designed to exhibit unique properties and behavior. Laserbased additive manufacturing has been successful in producing relatively simple near net-shape metallic parts saving material and cost, but requiring finish-machining and in repair and refurbishment of worn components. It has been routinely used to produce polymer parts. These capabilities have been widely recognized as evidenced by the explosion in interest in AM technology, nationally. These successes are, however, tempered by challenges facing practitioners such as process and part qualification and verification, which are needed to bring AM as a true manufacturing technology. The ONR manufacturing science program, in collaboration with other agencies, invested in basic R&D in AM since its beginnings. It continues to invest, currently focusing on developing cyber-enabled manufacturing systems for AM. It is believed that such computation, communication and control approaches will help in validating AM and moving it to the factory floor along side CNC machines.

Additive manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing are able to generate reproductions of a part in free space without the use of molds; however, the objects produced lack electrical functionality from an applications perspective. At the same time, techniques such as inkjet and laser direct-write (LDW) can be used to print electronic components and connections onto already existing objects, but are not capable of generating a full object on their own. The approach missing to date is the combination of 3D printing processes with direct-write of electronic circuits. Among the numerous direct write techniques available, LDW offers unique advantages and capabilities given its compatibility with a wide range of materials, surface chemistries and surface morphologies. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has developed various LDW processes ranging from the non-phase transformative direct printing of complex suspensions or inks to lase-and-place for embedding entire semiconductor devices. These processes have been demonstrated in digital manufacturing of a wide variety of microelectronic elements ranging from circuit components such as electrical interconnects and passives to antennas, sensors, actuators and power sources. At NRL we are investigating the combination of LDW with 3D printing to demonstrate the digital fabrication of functional parts, such as 3D circuits. Merging these techniques will make possible the development of a new generation of structures capable of detecting, processing, communicating and interacting with their surroundings in ways never imagined before. This paper shows the latest results achieved at NRL in this area, describing the various approaches developed for generating 3D printed electronics with LDW.

It has been hypothesised that AM is ideal for patient specific orthopaedic implants such as those used in bone cancer treatment, that can rapidly build structures such as lattices for bone and tissues to in-grow, that would be impossible using current conventional subtractive manufacturing techniques. The aim of this study was to describe the adoption of AM (direct metal laser sintering and electron beam melting) into the design manufacturing and post-manufacturing processes and the early clinical use. Prior to the clinical use of AM implants, extensive metallurgical and mechanical testing of both laser and electron beam fabrications were undertaken. Concurrently, post-manufacturing processes evaluated included hipping, cleaning and coating treatments. The first clinical application of a titanium alloy mega-implant was undertaken in November 2010. A 3D model of the pelvic wing implant was designed from CT scans. Novel key features included extensive lattice structures at the bone interfaces and integral flanges to fix the implant to the bone. The pelvic device was implanted with the aid of navigation and to date the patient remains active. A further 18 patient specific mega-implants have now been implanted. The early use of this advanced manufacturing route for patient specific implants has been very encouraging enabling the engineer to produce more advanced and anatomical conforming implants. However, there are a new set of design, manufacturing and regulatory challenges that require addressing to permit this technique to be used more widely. This technology is changing the design and manufacturing paradigm for the fabrication of specialised orthopaedic implants.

Photonics provide indispensable technology buildings bricks that enable a wide range of products as well as driving the development of entirely new industries. The European Commission recognized the potential of photonics to strengthen Europe’s industrial and innovation capacity and consequently declared photonics as a Key Enabling Technology. Photonics21 as partner of the European Commission developed a Multiannual Strategic Roadmap which aims at boosting European photonics along the whole innovation chain with special focus on the gap between generating knowledge and products. The roadmap will be realized in a Public Private Partnership between the European photonics industry and the European Commission until 2020. In this PPP it is intended that the industry commits to leverage the public funds by the factor of 4.

Femtosecond lasers have opened up new avenues in materials processing due to their unique characteristics of ultra-short pulse widths and extremely high peak intensities that induce strong absorption in even transparent materials due to nonlinear multiphoton absorption. Then, the femtosecond laser can directly fabricate three-dimensional microfluidic, micromechanic, microelectronic, and micro-optical components in glass. These microcomponents can be easily integrated in a single glass microchip, which enable us to fabricate functional biochips quickly screening large number of biological analytes. In this talk, the detailed fabrication procedure of biochips using the femtosecond laser and applications of the fabricated biochips to material synthesis, analysis of biochemical samples, and determination of functions of microorganisms are introduced.

Photonic wire bonding exploits three-dimensional (3D) two-photon lithography to fabricate single-mode connections between nanophotonic circuits that are located on different chips. The shape of the photonic wire bonds can be adjusted to the positions of the chips such that high-precision alignment becomes obsolete. The technique enables photonic multi-chip modules that combine the strengths of different optical integration platforms.

We present a developed method based on direct laser writing (DLW) and chemical metallization (CM) for microfabrication of three-dimensional (3D) metallic structures. Such approach enables manufacturing of free­-form electro conductive interconnects which can be used in integrated electric circuits such micro-opto-electro mechanical systems (MOEMS). The proposed technique employing ultrafast high repetition rate laser enables efficient fabrication of 3D microstructures on dielectric as well as conductive substrates. The produced polymer links out of organic-inorganic composite matrix after CM serve as interconnects of separate metallic contacts, their dimensions are: height 15μm, width 5μm, length 35-45 μm and could provide 300 nΩm resistivity measured in a macroscopic way. This proves the techniques potential for creating integrated 3D electric circuits at microscale.

A three-dimensional (3-D) molding process using a master polymer mold produced by microstereolithography has been developed for the production of piezoelectric ceramic elements. In this method, ceramic slurry is injected into a 3-D polymer mold via a centrifugal casting process. The polymer master mold is thermally decomposed so that complex 3-D piezoelectric ceramic elements can be produced. As an example of 3-D piezoelectric ceramic elements, we produced a spiral piezoelectric element that can convert multidirectional loads into a voltage. It was confirmed that a prototype of the spiral piezoelectric element could generate a voltage by applying a load in both parallel and lateral directions in relation to the helical axis. The power output of 123 pW was obtained by applying the maximum load of 2.8N at 2 Hz along the helical axis. In addition, to improve the performance of power generation, we utilized a two-step sintering process to obtain dense piezoelectric elements. As a result, we obtained a sintering body with relative density of 92.8%. Piezoelectric constant d₃₁ of the sintered body attained to -40.0 pC/N. Furthermore we analyzed the open-circuit voltage of the spiral piezoelectric element using COMSOL multiphysics. As a result, it was found that use of patterned electrodes according to the surface potential distribution of the spiral piezoelectric element had a potential to provide high output voltage that was 20 times larger than that of uniform electrodes.

Despite the rapid growth of microfabrication technologies over the past decades, many desirable microstructures remain difficult or even impossible to create, especially when the structures are composed of multiple components that feature different materials that must be arranged in a highly specific, 3-D pattern. We have developed aqueous photoresists that can be used in combination with different techniques for nanomanipulation to create such structures. Multiphoton absorption polymerization can be used to create unsupported polymeric microstructures that can be nanomanipulated to place them in any desired position and orientation. Nanomanipulation techniques can also be used to place micro- or nanoscale components in desired locations in three dimensions, after which they can be immobilized photochemically. This toolbox of techniques offers the capability of creating a broad range of new structures and devices featuring polymeric, inorganic, metallic and biomolecular components.

Gas mediated processing under a charged particle (electron or ion) beam enables direct-write, high resolution surface functionalization, chemical dry etching and chemical vapor deposition of a wide range of materials including catalytic metals, optoelectronic grade semiconductors and oxides. Here we highlight three recent developments of particular interest to the optical materials and nanofabrication communities: fabrication of self-supporting, three dimensional, fluorescent diamond nanostructures, electron beam induced deposition (EBID) of high purity materials via activated chemisorption, and post-growth purification of nanocrystalline EBID-grown platinum suitable for catalysis applications.

Laser cladding processing has been used in different industries to improve the surface properties or to reconstruct damaged pieces. In order to cover areas considerably larger than the diameter of the laser beam, successive partially overlapping tracks are deposited. With no control over the process variables this conduces to an increase of the temperature, which could decrease mechanical properties of the laser cladded material. Commonly, the process is monitored and controlled by a PC using cameras, but this control suffers from a lack of speed caused by the image processing step. The aim of this work is to design and develop a FPGA-based laser cladding control system. This system is intended to modify the laser beam power according to the melt pool width, which is measured using a CMOS camera. All the control and monitoring tasks are carried out by a FPGA, taking advantage of its abundance of resources and speed of operation. The robustness of the image processing algorithm is assessed, as well as the control system performance. Laser power is decreased as substrate temperature increases, thus maintaining a constant clad width. This FPGA-based control system is integrated in an adaptive laser cladding system, which also includes an adaptive optical system that will control the laser focus distance on the fly. The whole system will constitute an efficient instrument for part repair with complex geometries and coating selective surfaces. This will be a significant step forward into the total industrial implementation of an automated industrial laser cladding process.

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D-printing, is a near-net shape manufacturing approach, delivering part geometry that can be considerably affected by various process conditions, heat-induced distortions, solidified melt droplets, partially fused powders, and surface modifications induced by the manufacturing tool motion and processing strategy. High-repetition rate femtosecond and picosecond laser radiation was utilized to improve surface quality of metal parts manufactured by laser additive techniques. Different laser scanning approaches were utilized to increase the ablation efficiency and to reduce the surface roughness while preserving the initial part geometry. We studied post-processing of 3D-shaped parts made of Nickel- and Titanium-base alloys by utilizing Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) as additive manufacturing techniques. Process parameters such as the pulse energy, the number of layers and their spatial separation were varied. Surface processing in several layers was necessary to remove the excessive material, such as individual powder particles, and to reduce the average surface roughness from asdeposited 22-45 μm to a few microns. Due to the ultrafast laser-processing regime and the small heat-affected zone induced in materials, this novel integrated manufacturing approach can be used to post-process parts made of thermally and mechanically sensitive materials, and to attain complex designed shapes with micrometer precision.

We report a new route to obtaining custom freeform micro-optical components that is free from symmetry restrictions, offering drastically lower cost and delivery times than what is required by other freeform manufacturing methods. We describe how this process can be used to realize a complex custom optic using data generated directly from a design in Zemax. This surface is then extracted from Zemax and fabricated using the LightForge service before being measured. A quantitative analysis of the real optic is carried out both numerically and with the design source in Zemax, and we present a comparison between design and fabricated part performance.

Employing aspherical lenses to reduce aberrations to improve focusing qualities is a well-known concept. But the potpourri of aspherical surfaces offers way more possibilities, even the chance for flexible beam shaping setups. Since these are refractive optical elements the beam shaping is robust with respect to wavelength changes. Basic requirement for optimal and flexible usage of all beam shaping elements is a flexible beam expanding approach, which will be introduce as well. Being able to generate ring shaped light distributions is interesting for various applications. Here the most uncommon aspherical surface – an axicon – is utilized. Axicons are rotational symmetric prisms, which convert the incoming light into Bessel beams. Those are characterized by their concentrical ring structure and long depth of focus, which makes them very interesting for material processing. Above that, combining such an axicon with a focusing lens leads to a ring focus. Its size is not only determined by the choice of the axicon angle and the lens properties, but also through the diameter of the incoming beam. Thus, for optimal usage a flexible beam expander, which leaves the beam quality unaltered is mandatory. The remarkable properties of these beamshaping set-ups are shown in theory and experimentally.