Engineering materials with light: recent progress in digital light processing based 3D printing

Abstract

Digital light processing (DLP) based 3D printing is a well recognized area with tremendous technical and commercial potential. The printing process is essentially a photochemical material synthesis, which involves a dynamic light source as the energy input, a mechanical printing platform as the reaction container and photo-curable precursors as reaction mixtures. This review article focuses on introducing the recent progress in illumination approaches, instrumental design and precursor formulation in DLP based printing. The working principle as well as the instrumental setup of each technique is discussed in detail. The above developments have significantly extended the capability of DLP based printing, leading to potential applications in soft robotics, wearable electronics, sensors, smart materials and biomimetic devices. A brief account on exemplary applications is highlighted and a perspective on this field is provided at the end.