Dunno what the positional accuracy is like, but if this is truly 0.1um resolution...

Dunno what the positional accuracy is like, but if this is truly 0.1um resolution… Back in '98 TSMC was just releasing their 0.18um CMOS process and MEMS was just starting to appear.

This is potentially MEMS-scale 3D printing! For $5K!
http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/01/10/owl-nano-stereolithography-1-microns

Too pricey now, but 0.1 micron resolution?!?!?!? Wow.

If you can prototype even basic MEMS structures (microfluidic arrays, electrostatic motors, etc) then $5K is an extreme bargain. That’s a fraction of the cost of getting something fab’d thru more traditional MEMS processes offered by the likes of Micralyne.

@Andrew_Plumb Yeah, well if you’re gonna throw FACTS into the argument, then of course I have to concede… :slight_smile: Let me correct… Too expensive for an impulsive I-gotta-have-me-one-of-dem buys… But d*mned impressive for something with that resolution. Leaves me wondering what the catch is… Super-expensive proprietary resin? Toxic vapors? Smells like cat pee when printing? It’s gotta be something, right?

Yeah, I’ve been avoiding all the liquid resin options for the home because of the toxic processing/cleaning requirements.

I saw it (not running). I can believe that they have .1um theoretical positioning accuracy (probably counting microstepping, which is not reliably precise). The Z screw had a pretty fine pitch, though looked like it might have been a 2-start. Believe that it had a full-step travel distance of (approximately) 3.2um, which would make each microstep nominally .1um. I only saw the Z screw, but the X and Y are probably running on the same thing. I don’t believe that the laser is focused to selectively cure a point that small (if it was, the cured point wouldn’t be fused together). It’s probably curing an area significantly larger than that, with a theoretical (assuming microstepping is reliably precise, which it isn’t) positioning accuracy of.1um, which is much less impressive than it sounds.