A copper micro-pillar with a height of 0.86 millimetres and a width of 0.005 millimetres. The pillar is formed from drops that had a diameter of 0.001 millimetres. With this technique, more complex shapes can also be printed. Image courtesy of University of Twente
by Science Daily
A team of researchers from the University of Twente has found a way to 3D print structures of copper and gold, by stacking microscopically small metal droplets. These droplets are made by melting a thin metal film using a pulsed laser. Their work is published on Advanced Materials.
3D printing is a rapidly advancing field, that is sometimes referred to as the ‘new cornerstone of the manufacturing industry’. However, at present, 3D printing is mostly limited to plastics. If metals could be used for 3D printing as well, this would open a wide new range of possibilities. Metals conduct electricity and heat very well, and they’re very robust. Therefore, 3D printing in metals would allow manufacturing of entirely new devices and components, such as small cooling elements or connections between stacked chips in smartphones.
However, metals melt at a high temperature. This makes controlled deposition of metal droplets highly challenging. Thermally robust nozzles are required to process liquid metals, but these are hardly available. For small structures in particular (from 100 nanometres to 10 micrometres) no good solutions for this problem existed yet.
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