Disclosure of Invention
Based on this, it is necessary to provide a photocuring additive manufacturing method capable of improving manufacturing accuracy and expanding the diversity of manufactured products.
A method of photocuring additive manufacturing, comprising the steps of:
dispersing the light-cured resin on a first transfer substrate to obtain a first ink sheet;
attaching the surface of the first ink sheet where the light-cured resin is located to a target substrate to form a light-cured resin interlayer between the first transfer substrate and the target substrate; wherein at least one of the first transfer substrate and the target substrate is a light-transmitting material which can be penetrated by a light source for photocuring;
carrying out photocuring on the photocuring resin interlayer from one side of the substrate made of the light-transmitting material to form a photocuring resin film; and
and removing the first transfer substrate, and forming a light-cured resin film on the target substrate.
In the photocuring additive manufacturing method, the photocuring resin is dispersed on the first transfer substrate, then is attached to the target substrate and is photocured, and then the first transfer substrate is removed, so that the photocuring resin film is transferred to the target substrate. The first transfer substrate is adopted to disperse the photocuring resin, so that a smooth photocuring resin film with a specific pattern or a smooth photocuring resin film with a specific pattern can be formed by utilizing the smoothness of the first transfer substrate or the pattern on the surface of the first transfer substrate, and the photocuring resin film can be transferred to a non-smooth target substrate conveniently, so that a finished product can be manufactured on the non-planar substrate, the type and the thickness of the photocuring resin dispersed on the first transfer substrate can be controlled conveniently, the type and the thickness of each layer of photocuring resin film can be controlled flexibly, various different photocuring resin materials can be integrated conveniently, the thickness of each layer of photocuring resin film can reach a nanometer level, the precision of a photocuring additive manufacturing finished product is greatly improved, the diversity of photocuring additive manufacturing finished products is enriched, and the application range of the photocuring additive manufacturing method is expanded.
In addition, since the preparation method can form the photocuring resin film with a specific pattern by using the pattern on the surface of the first transfer substrate, various high-resolution nanoscale microstructures or micropatterns of various non-resin functional materials such as metals, semiconductors, luminescent materials, single crystal materials and the like can be introduced into the photocuring additive manufacturing finished product through the transfer substrate.
In some embodiments, the method further comprises the step of repeatedly forming a light-curable resin film on the target substrate, the step of repeatedly forming the light-curable resin film comprising the steps of:
dispersing the light-cured resin on a second transfer substrate to obtain a second ink sheet;
attaching the surface of the second ink sheet where the light-cured resin is located to the light-cured resin film on the target substrate, and performing light curing; and
removing the second transfer substrate.
In some of these embodiments, the target substrate is a planar substrate or a non-planar substrate; when the target substrate is a non-planar substrate, the first transfer substrate and/or the second transfer substrate is a flexible substrate; and/or
The target substrate is a hollow substrate.
In some of these embodiments, the first transfer substrate, the second transfer substrate are independently selected from a substrate having a flat surface, a nano-imprint template, or a substrate having a micro-relief pattern on its surface.
In some embodiments, the first transfer substrate and the second transfer substrate are independently selected from substrates with micro-nano patterns of functional materials on the surfaces, and the functional materials are two-dimensional nano materials, nano particles, functional molecules or one-dimensional nano materials.
In some embodiments, the first transfer substrate and/or the second transfer substrate is transparent.
In some embodiments, the materials of the first transfer substrate and the second transfer substrate are independently selected from at least one of silicon, transparent glass, quartz and transparent resin.
In some of these embodiments, the light-curable resin interlayer is light-cured in a full layer or selectively light-cured.
In some embodiments, the light-curable resin interlayer is exposed to light in a scanning exposure mode, a projection exposure mode, or a contact, proximity or projection exposure mode combined with a photomask.
In some embodiments, the light-curing resin used for forming each light-curing resin film is the same in type, or at least two light-curing resin films are different in type;
the light-cured resin films are sequentially stacked, or at least two light-cured resin films are arranged on the same layer.
In some of these embodiments, the method of removing the first transfer substrate and/or the second transfer substrate is mechanical detachment, wet etching, or dry etching.
In some embodiments, the light source used for photocuring is at least one of visible light, laser, infrared light, ultraviolet light, X-ray, electron beam, and ion beam.
In some embodiments, the step of photocuring further comprises the step of aligning the light source with the target substrate.
In some embodiments, the light-cured resin is dispersed by dropping, spraying or spin-coating; or a method of transferring after dropping dispersion, spraying dispersion or spin coating dispersion is adopted.
In some embodiments, the attachment is a conformal contact attachment.
Detailed Description
To facilitate an understanding of the invention, the invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "secured to" another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present. When an element is referred to as being "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present.
Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The terminology used in the description of the invention herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
An embodiment of the present invention provides a photocuring additive manufacturing method, including the following steps S1 to S4:
step S1: the photocurable resin is dispersed on the first transfer substrate to obtain a first ink sheet.
The first ink sheet is a first transfer substrate on which a photocurable resin is dispersed.
Step S2: attaching the surface of the first ink sheet where the light-cured resin is located to a target substrate to form a light-cured resin interlayer between the first transfer substrate and the target substrate; at least one of the first transfer substrate and the target substrate is made of a light-transmitting material which can be transmitted by a light source used for photocuring.
Step S3: and carrying out photocuring on the photocuring resin interlayer from the side of the substrate made of the light-transmitting material to form the photocuring resin film.
Step S4: the first transfer substrate is removed, and a photocurable resin film is formed on the target substrate. It is understood that step S4 also includes a step of removing possible uncured resin.
In the photocuring additive manufacturing method, the photocuring resin is dispersed on the first transfer substrate, then is attached to the target substrate and is photocured, and then the first transfer substrate is removed, so that the photocuring resin film is transferred to the target substrate. The first transfer substrate is adopted to disperse the photocuring resin, so that a smooth photocuring resin film with a specific pattern or a smooth photocuring resin film with a specific pattern can be formed by utilizing the smoothness of the first transfer substrate or the pattern on the surface of the first transfer substrate, and the photocuring resin film can be transferred to a non-smooth target substrate conveniently, so that a finished product can be manufactured on the non-planar substrate, the type and the thickness of the photocuring resin dispersed on the first transfer substrate can be controlled conveniently, the type and the thickness of each layer of photocuring resin film can be controlled flexibly, various different photocuring resin materials can be integrated conveniently, the thickness of each layer of photocuring resin film can reach a nanometer level, the precision of a photocuring additive manufacturing finished product is greatly improved, the diversity of photocuring additive manufacturing finished products is enriched, and the application range of the photocuring additive manufacturing method is expanded.
It is understood that, in some embodiments, step S5 is further included after step S4: and judging whether the light-cured resin film is continuously formed or not.
If the light-cured resin film does not need to be formed continuously, the first transfer substrate can be removed, the target substrate is remained, and the step of light-cured additive manufacturing is finished. If it is necessary to continue forming the photocurable resin film, after the step of removing the first transfer substrate, the method further includes: the step of forming a light-curing resin film is continued on the surface of the light-curing resin film from which the first transfer substrate is removed.
Further, the number of times of repeatedly forming the photocurable resin film on the target substrate is one or more, specifically set as needed. In some embodiments, the step S6 of repeatedly forming a light-curing resin film on a target substrate includes the following steps S1 to S4. The method comprises the following specific steps:
dispersing the light-cured resin on a second transfer substrate to obtain a second ink sheet; the second ink sheet is a second transfer substrate dispersed with a photocurable resin.
And the surface of the second ink sheet where the light-cured resin is located is attached to the light-cured resin film on the target substrate, and the light curing is carried out.
It is understood that the number of times of repeatedly forming the photocurable resin film is one or more times, and thus a finished product is manufactured by forming the photocurable resin film a plurality of times. The thickness of the formed photocuring resin film is independently controllable and can reach uniform nanoscale thickness, and the composition of a single-layer photocuring resin film is independently controllable and can be selected at will, so that the photocuring additive manufacturing method can be used for manufacturing complex micro-nano functional devices which need high resolution and integration of various heterogeneous materials.
It is understood that the target substrate may be a planar substrate, or a non-planar substrate, such as a curved substrate. In particular, the photocuring additive manufacturing method is particularly suitable for manufacturing finished products on non-planar substrates such as curved substrates and the like.
Further, when the target substrate is a non-planar substrate such as a curved substrate, each transfer substrate for dispersing the photocurable resin is a flexible substrate; the light-cured resin is dispersed on the flexible transfer substrate so as to form a smooth and uniform light-cured resin film, then the flexible transfer substrate is utilized to bend the transfer substrate, the transfer substrate is attached to a non-planar target substrate such as a curved surface, the transfer substrate is skillfully transferred to the non-planar target substrate such as the curved surface in a mode of removing the transfer substrate, and the manufacture of a finished product on the non-planar substrate is further realized.
Further, the light-cured additive manufacturing method is particularly suitable for manufacturing finished products on the hollow substrate serving as the target substrate. The hollow substrate is inconvenient for directly manufacturing a finished product on the hollow substrate due to the hollow part, which seriously limits the application of the hollow substrate. The above-described photocurable additive manufacturing method of the present invention effectively overcomes this problem by transferring the substrate.
In some embodiments, any one or more of the transfer substrates used to dispense the photocurable resin may be a flat-surfaced substrate, a nano-imprint template, or a substrate with a micro-relief pattern on its surface; therefore, the photo-curing resin film can form a pattern or a micro-relief pattern corresponding to the nano-imprint template with a smooth surface. For example, a nano-imprint template with a surface micro-nano relief structure is used as a transfer substrate, so that various high-resolution nano-scale microstructures are introduced.
Further, the first transfer substrate and the second transfer substrate are independently selected from substrates with functional material micro-nano patterns on the surfaces, and the functional materials are two-dimensional nano materials, nano particles, functional molecules or one-dimensional nano materials. Wherein the two-dimensional nano material comprises a functional film. Specifically, the functional material may be a metal material, an inorganic non-metal material, a semiconductor material, a light-emitting material, a single crystal material, or the like. In the above-described photocurable additive manufacturing method, the base having the micropattern of the functional material is used as a transfer substrate for the ink sheet, and therefore micropatterns of a plurality of functional materials such as a metal, a semiconductor, a light-emitting material, and a single crystal material can be introduced.
In some embodiments, the light-curable resins used for forming the light-curable resin films are the same, or at least two light-curable resin films are different. It is understood that in some embodiments, the photo-curable resin used for forming each photo-curable resin film is different in kind.
In some embodiments, the step of photocuring further includes the step of aligning a photocuring light source with the photocuring resin interlayer so as to accurately locate the position where the photocuring resin film is required to be formed. Further, the alignment may be performed using an optical imaging system.
Further, the transfer substrate is a light-transmitting material which can transmit a light source used for photocuring, and is more preferably a transparent material. Therefore, the target substrate can be accurately positioned, so that the accurate alignment of the multilayer light-cured resin film pattern is realized, or the accurate alignment of the light-cured resin film pattern to be formed currently and the light-cured resin film pattern existing on the surface of the target substrate is realized.
Further, the material of each transfer substrate for dispersing the photo-curable resin may be at least one of silicon, transparent glass, quartz, and transparent resin. Further, each transfer substrate for dispersing the photocurable resin may be a silicon wafer, a transparent glass sheet, a quartz sheet, a transparent resin sheet, a surface-treated transparent resin sheet, a fluorine resin-coated silicon wafer, or a fluorine resin-coated transparent glass sheet. Further, the transparent resin may be PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane).
In some of these embodiments, the light-curing of the light-curable resin interlayer is by way of a full-layer light-curing or a selective light-curing.
In some of these embodiments, the light-curable resin films are sequentially stacked. Further, the light-curing method of each light-curing resin interlayer is light-curing the entire layer, and the formed light-curing resin films are sequentially stacked.
In other embodiments, at least two photocurable resin films are provided in the same layer, such as by selective photocuring of the photocurable resin interlayer followed by removal of uncured photocurable resin to pattern the photocurable resin films in specific areas; then another light-curing resin interlayer is formed on the other unpatterned area, and then the light-curing resin is selectively cured, and the uncured light-curing resin is removed. Further, the plurality of light-curable resin films are all arranged in the same layer.
In some of these embodiments, the method of removing the first transfer substrate and/or the second transfer substrate may be mechanical detachment, wet etching, or dry etching.
In some of these embodiments, the light source used for photocuring is at least one of visible light, laser, infrared light, ultraviolet light, X-ray, electron beam, and ion beam.
In some embodiments, the light-cured resin is dispersed on the first transfer substrate or the second transfer substrate by dropping, spraying or spin coating; or a method of transferring after dropping dispersion, spraying dispersion or spin coating dispersion is adopted. Referring to fig. 2, there are shown different methods of uniformly dispersing a photocurable resin on a transfer substrate such as a first transfer substrate or a second transfer substrate, wherein (a) is a dropping method, (b) is a spraying method, (c) is a spin coating method, and (d) is a transfer method. (a) And (b) the photocurable resin droplets 121 are dispersed on the transfer substrate 110, (c) the photocurable resin droplets 121 dispersed on the transfer substrate 110 are rotated by the spin coating stage 200 to form the photocurable resin coating 120, (d) the photocurable resin coating 120 is formed by the spin coating process on the flat dispersion substrate 130 by the spin coating stage 200, and then is attached to the transfer substrate 110 to transfer the photocurable resin coating 120 onto the transfer substrate 110, thereby forming an ink sheet.
The method of dropping, spraying, dispersing or spin-coating, dispersing and then transferring is specifically that dropping, spraying, dispersing or spin-coating is firstly dispersed on a dispersion substrate, and then the dispersed light-cured resin is transferred from the dispersion substrate to a transfer substrate such as a first transfer substrate or a second transfer substrate by a transfer method.
In some embodiments, the attaching manner is conformal contact attaching, so that uniformity of the subsequently prepared photocured film can be better ensured.
Referring to fig. 3, a photo-curing additive manufacturing method according to an embodiment is shown, including the following steps: (a) taking the transparent transfer substrate 110 as an ink sheet base, and uniformly dispersing the photocuring resin droplets 121 on the surface of the ink sheet base to form an ink sheet; (b) closely and conformally contacting the ink sheet with a target substrate 140 to form a light-cured resin film interlayer 122, and performing selective light curing; the photocuring process uses the optical imaging system 300 for precise positioning and alignment; (c) the transfer substrate 110 is removed and the uncured resin is removed to obtain the micro pattern 123 formed by a single layer of the photo-cured resin film, i.e. to complete the photo-cured additive manufacturing of one layer of the resin material.
Referring to fig. 4a to 4i, a method for manufacturing a photo-cured additive manufacturing according to an embodiment is respectively shown.
Referring to fig. 4a, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: a silicon wafer 111 coated with a thin layer 112 of fluorine resin is used as a transfer substrate 110, i.e., an ink sheet substrate; a flat glass sheet is used as the transparent target substrate 140. Thus, a micro-pattern thin layer 123 of photo-curing resin with good conductivity is manufactured on the surface of the flat glass sheet through photo-curing additive manufacturing, so that a resin-based micro-circuit pattern is obtained.
Referring to fig. 4b, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: using a flexible substrate PDMS with a surface treatment as a transfer substrate 110, namely an ink sheet substrate, and forming a photocuring resin coating 120 on the transfer substrate 110, wherein the photocuring resin is epoxy photocuring resin SU 8; taking the hollow substrate as a target substrate 140; the light curable resin is epoxy light curable resin SU8 to form light curable resin film interlayer 122. And performing photocuring and material increase on the surface of the hollow substrate to manufacture a micro-pattern thin layer 123 made of SU8 material, so as to obtain a self-supporting microstructure.
Referring to fig. 4c, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: a flexible nano-imprint template is used as a transfer substrate 110, i.e. an ink sheet substrate; the glass plate is used as a target substrate 140, and the light-curing resin is a silicon-containing light-curing resin, and a light-curing resin film interlayer 122 is formed between the transfer substrate 110 and the target substrate 140. Thus, a silicon-containing light-cured resin thin layer 123 with a nano array structure on the surface is manufactured on the surface of the glass sheet through ultraviolet light curing additive manufacturing.
Referring to fig. 4d, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: using a low surface energy flexible substrate pre-assembled with nanoparticle micro patterns as a transfer substrate 110, i.e., an ink sheet substrate; wherein the nanoparticle micro-pattern 113 is a patterned nano-functional material; with a glass sheet as a target substrate 140, a light-cured resin thin film interlayer 122 on the surface of the glass sheet is subjected to ultraviolet light curing additive manufacturing to form a light-cured resin thin film 123, and the nanoparticle micro-pattern 113 is also transferred to the surface of the light-cured resin thin film 123 in the light-cured additive manufacturing.
Referring to fig. 4e, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: a flexible PET film pre-plated with metal micro-patterns 114 is used as a transfer substrate 110, i.e., an ink sheet substrate; the glass sheet is taken as a target substrate 140, a light-cured resin thin film layer 123 is formed on the light-cured resin thin film interlayer 122 on the surface of the glass sheet through ultraviolet light curing additive manufacturing, and a metal micro-pattern layer is arranged on the surface of the light-cured resin thin film layer 123.
Referring to fig. 4f, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: a silicon wafer 111 coated with a thin layer 112 of fluorine resin is used as a first transfer substrate 110, i.e., an ink sheet base; the glass sheet is taken as a target substrate 140, the first ink sheet and the target substrate 140 are in conformal contact and joint, a first silicon-containing light-cured resin interlayer 122 is formed on the surface of the flat glass sheet, and then a first silicon-containing light-cured resin micro-pattern thin layer 123 is manufactured through ultraviolet selective light-cured material increase. Then, the silicon wafer 111 coated with the fluorine resin thin layer 112 is used as a second transfer substrate, namely an ink sheet base, a second ink sheet is conformally contacted and attached with the target substrate 140, a second non-silicon-containing transparent colorless photocuring resin interlayer 124 is formed in an unpatterned area in the same layer of the first silicon-containing photocuring resin micro-pattern thin layer 123, and a second non-silicon-containing transparent colorless photocuring resin micro-pattern 125 is manufactured through ultraviolet selective photocuring additive manufacturing. Then, the silicon wafer 111 coated with the fluororesin thin layer 112 is used as a third transfer substrate, namely an ink sheet base, and a third ink sheet is conformally contacted and attached with the target substrate 140, a third non-silicon yellow-containing photocuring resin interlayer 126 is formed in the same layer of the first silicon-containing photocuring resin micro-pattern thin layer 123 and the second non-silicon transparent colorless photocuring resin micro-pattern 125, and a third non-silicon yellow-containing photocuring resin micro-pattern 127 is manufactured through ultraviolet selective photocuring additive manufacturing, so that a plurality of different photocuring resin micro-pattern thin layers with the same layer are finally obtained.
Referring to fig. 4g, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: using a flexible nano-imprint template as a first transfer substrate 110, i.e. an ink sheet base; taking a glass sheet as a target substrate 140, and manufacturing a silicon-containing light-cured resin thin layer 123 with a nano array structure on the surface through whole ultraviolet light curing material increase on a silicon-containing light-cured resin interlayer 122 on the surface of the flat glass sheet; then, a second layer of silicon-free photocurable resin interlayer 124 is formed on the surface of the nano array of the silicon-containing photocurable resin thin layer 123 by using the surface-treated flexible substrate PDMS as the second transfer substrate 110, i.e., the ink sheet base, and then a second layer of silicon-free photocurable resin micro-pattern layer 125 is manufactured through selective photocuring additive manufacturing.
Referring to fig. 4h, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: using a flexible nano-imprint template as a first transfer substrate 110, i.e. an ink sheet base; uniformly dispersing a light-cured resin on the surface of an ink sheet substrate to form a first ink sheet; and taking the non-flat curved surface of the optical lens as a target substrate 140, bending the first ink sheet to closely and conformally contact the target substrate to form a photocuring resin film interlayer 122, performing whole-layer photocuring, and performing ultraviolet curing material increase on the surface of the non-flat curved surface of the optical lens to manufacture a silicon-containing photocuring resin thin layer 123 with a nano array structure on the surface. Then, the flexible substrate PDMS with the surface treated is used as a second transfer substrate 110, namely an ink sheet base, and the silicon-free photocuring resin is uniformly dispersed on the surface of the ink sheet base to form a second ink sheet; and (3) the second ink sheet is contacted and attached with the silicon-containing light-cured resin thin layer 123 on the target substrate 140 in a common manner, a second silicon-free light-cured resin interlayer 124 is formed on the surface of the first nano array of the silicon-containing light-cured resin thin layer 123, and then a second silicon-free light-cured resin micro-pattern layer 125 is manufactured through selective light-curing additive manufacturing.
Referring to fig. 4i, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 3, except that: a silicon wafer 111 coated with a thin layer 112 of fluorine resin is used as a first transfer substrate 110, i.e., an ink sheet base; and taking the glass sheet as a target substrate, enabling the first ink sheet to be in close conformal contact with the target substrate, forming a low-refractive-index light-cured resin interlayer 122 on the surface of the flat glass sheet, and manufacturing a low-refractive-index light-cured resin thin layer 123 through whole-layer ultraviolet light curing material increase. Then, using the silicon wafer 111 coated with the fluororesin thin layer 112 as a second transfer substrate, namely an ink sheet substrate, and uniformly dispersing the high-refractive-index photocuring resin on the surface of the ink sheet substrate to form a second ink sheet; and (3) the second ink sheet is contacted and attached with the low-refractive-index light-cured resin thin layer 123 on the target substrate 140 in a common manner, a high-refractive-index light-cured resin interlayer 124 is formed on the first low-refractive-index light-cured resin thin layer 123, and a high-refractive-index light-cured resin optical waveguide pattern layer 125 is manufactured through selective ultraviolet light curing and material increasing, so that the resin-based optical waveguide device is formed.
The technical features of the embodiments described above may be arbitrarily combined, and for the sake of brevity, all possible combinations of the technical features in the embodiments described above are not described, but should be considered as being within the scope of the present specification as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features.
The above-mentioned embodiments only express several embodiments of the present invention, and the description thereof is more specific and detailed, but not construed as limiting the scope of the invention. It should be noted that, for a person skilled in the art, several variations and modifications can be made without departing from the inventive concept, which falls within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present patent shall be subject to the appended claims.