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REVIEW ARTICLE

Digital Light Processing Based Three-dimensional

Printing for Medical Applications

Jiumeng Zhang , Qipeng Hu , Shuai Wang , Jie Tao , Maling Gou *
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1 State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065,
China
2 Department of Thoracic Oncology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, 610041, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Abstract: An additive manufacturing technology based on projection light, digital light processing (DLP), three-dimensional
(3D) printing, has been widely applied in the field of medical products production and development. The precision projection
light, reflected by a digital micromirror device of million pixels instead of one focused point, provides this technology both
printing accuracy and printing speed. In particular, this printing technology provides a relatively mild condition to cells due
to its non-direct contact. This review introduces the DLP-based 3D printing technology and its applications in medicine,
including precise medical devices, functionalized artificial tissues, and specific drug delivery systems. The products are
particularly discussed for their significance in medicine. This review indicates that the DLP-based 3D printing technology
provides a potential tool for biological research and clinical medicine. While, it is faced to the challenges of scale-up of its
usage and waiting period of regulatory approval.

Keywords: Digital light processing, Three-dimensional print, Medical devices, Tissue engineering, Pharmacy
*Corresponding Author: Maling Gou, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and
Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China; goumaling@scu.edu.cn.
Received: September 13, 2019; Accepted: October 29, 2019; Published Online: November 28, 2019

Citation: Zhang J, Hu Q, Wang S, et al., 2020, Digital light processing based 3D printing for medical applications. Int J
Bioprint, 6(1):242. DOI: 10.18063/ijb.v6i1.242

1 Introduction medical products. In the meanwhile, the application
of these products continues to grow rapidly. The
Three-dimensional (3D) printing, a rapidly emerging latest forecast is that the global market for medical
technology, can construct products with complex products manufactured through 3D printing will
geometric features by depositing materials according reach nearly 26 billion dollars by 2022, while the
to the digital files [1-3] . This neoteric technology market related to bio-printing will exceed 1.3 billion
provides a rapid manufacturing method to fabricate dollars .
[3]
medical products that are usually complex and urgent. Digital light processing (DLP)-based 3D printing
In addition, 3D printing can fabricate customized is utilizing projection light to polymerize materials
products with complex accurate structure at to obtain the pre-designed structures . Compared
[5]
comparatively low costs, especially in personalized with other 3D printing methods, such as extrusion-
medical application. This has important implications based 3D printing technology and inkjet-based 3D
for a unique patient . Therefore, 3D printing printing technology, this technology has significant
[4]
technology has profoundly impacted biomedicine advantages in printing resolution, efficiency, and
for fabricating various complex and personalized working condition. Hence, it can give many good

© 2020 Zhang, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
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