Page 7 - MSAM-3-4

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

REVIEW ARTICLE
Additive manufacturing of light-emitting active

3D optical structures

3
Taewon Kim 1 , Hyeokin Kang 1 , Shufan Li 2 , Jiannan Jiao * , and
Young-Jin Kim *
1
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
(KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
2 School of Opto-Electronic and Communication Engineering, Xiamen University of Technology,
Xiamen, Fujian, China
3 Guangdong Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy (SZ), Shenzhen, China

Abstract
Additive manufacturing of arbitrarily shaped, light-emitting 3D structures is a pivotal
innovation for controlling the beam propagation direction, angular distribution,
emission point, and wavelength of active light sources. These light sources, which
include microscale lasers, light-emitting diodes, quantum dots (QDs), and other
emerging materials, are crucial for applications such as 3D cellular imaging, biomedical
endoscopy, linear and non-linear imaging spectroscopy, photonic circuit integration,
optical computing, and high-precision metrology in semiconductor and flat-panel
display inspection. To meet the diverse requirements of these applications, various
*Corresponding authors: light-emitting materials, such as fluorescent dyes, up-conversion nanoparticles, QDs,
Jiannan Jiao and non-linear optical media, have been incorporated into additive manufacturing
(jiaojiannan@gml.ac.cn)
Young-Jin Kim techniques. Over the past decade, several additive manufacturing methods have
(yj.kim@kaist.ac.kr) been adapted for fabricating active 3D optical structures, including inkjet printing
of functional inks, fused deposition modeling of light-emitting filaments, selective
Citation: Kim T, Kang H,
Li S, Jiao J, Kim YJ. Additive sintering of active material powders, and two-photon polymerization of photonic
manufacturing of light-emitting polymers. These methodologies offer unprecedented versatility in designing and
active 3D optical structures. Mater constructing complex optical structures with integrated light-emitting properties.
Sci Add Manuf. 2024;3(4):5748.
doi: 10.36922/msam.5748 The advent of such novel 3D-printed active optical systems promises to revolutionize
fields ranging from on-chip photonics to advanced spectroscopy and precise optical
Received: November 1, 2024
measurement techniques, ultimately enabling new frontiers in photonic technologies
Accepted: November 22, 2024 and their applications.
Published Online: December 12,
2024
Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Active optical materials; Optical structures; Lasers
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution, 1. Introduction
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is The rapid advancement of photonic technologies has led to an increasing demand for
properly cited. light sources that are compact, efficient, and capable of being customized for complex
Publisher’s Note: AccScience geometries and specific applications. Traditional fabrication methods, such as those
Publishing remains neutral with used for microscale lasers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and quantum dots (QDs),
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional are constrained by planar, layer-by-layer processes and rigid substrates, which limit
affiliations. geometric flexibility and seamless integration with non-planar optical components.

Volume 3 Issue 4 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/msam.5748