Development of a compact micro-stereolithography (MSTL) system using a Blu-ray optical pickup unit

Abstract

In this paper, a compact micro-stereolithography (MSTL) apparatus of tabletop size was designed and constructed using a Blu-ray optical pickup unit (OPU), which came from a commercial Blu-ray optical disk driver. This is the very first application of a Blu-ray OPU to a light source of a MSTL system. A three-axis stage was adopted to obtain 3D motions, and a simple optic system was added to extend the focal length of a Blu-ray OPU for avoiding the physical interference. A liquid photo-curable resin suitable for the system was recomposed by modifying previously reported one. Then, the fabrication characteristics were investigated by constructing single-line structures at varying parameters such as laser power, scan speed and aperture diameter. The cured depth and width of the single-line structures decreased as the irradiated energy, which is determined by laser power and scan speed, decreased. Interestingly, the result also showed that the aperture diameter can effectively control the aspect ratio of cured depth and width. The increase of aperture diameter brings about the decrease of cured depth and increase of cured width. Based on the results of single-line exposure experiment, various 3D micro-structures were successfully fabricated. From this study, it can be shown that the Blu-ray-based MSTL system and the resin are suitable for fabricating complicated 3D micro-structures with reproducibility.