Two-Photon 3D Printer – Nanoscribe Quantum X Shape

The Nanoscribe Quantum X Shape is a maskless laser lithography system for producing 2.5D and 3D structures in the microscopic scale. It performs additive manufacturing in a resin by selectively performing two-photon polymerization in certain areas defined by the input layout, using ultra-short near-infrared laser pulses.
Its main applications are: microoptics, biomedical devices, MEMS, microfluidics, surface engineering…

Two different print heads are available for different minimum feature size and throughput.

Two-Photon Polymerization

The basic physical prerequisite of Two-Photon Polymerization (2PP) is two-photon absorption, which theoretically states that an atom or molecule absorbs two photons
simultaneously. In 2PP-based 3D printing, the medium is usually a liquid and photosensitive resin that can be cured by UV light. 2PP uses low-energy light, such as near-infrared (NIR), which causes the printing material to solidify only when the photoresin molecules simultaneously absorb the energy of two photons. This  mechanism is only likely in the focal volume of pulsed light, as it requires high intensity within a volume of the photosensitive material.

• Print heads: SF (63x), MF (25x)
• Laser wavelength: 780 nm
• Printing area:  150 x 150 mm²
• Height range: 25 mm
• Max scan speed: 100 mm/s (SF); 250 mm/s (MF)
• Voxel size (xy/z): 0.2 µm / 0.5 µm (SF); 0.6 µm / 3.6 µm (MF)
• Slicing distance: 0.1 – 0.8 µm (SF); 0.5 – 3 µm (MF)
• Typical print height: 1 – 10 µm (SF); 10 – 150 µm (MF)