Microfabrication of ceramic components by microstereolithography

Microstereolithography is a technique that allows the manufacture of small and complex three-dimensional (3D) components in plastic material. Many of the components produced by this technique are too small and too complex to be replicated by molding and, consequently, the produced components need to have adequate mechanical or chemical characteristics to be useful. Until now, the choice of materials available in the microstereolithography process was limited to plastic, with only a few photosensitive resins available. In this paper we describe new polymer/composite photosensitive resins that can be used in the microstereolithography process for manufacturing complex 3D components. These resins are based on the insertion of a high load (up to 80 wt%) of alumina nanoparticles in a photosensitive polymer matrix. The resulting composite objects can undergo a debinding and sintering step to be transformed into pure ceramic microcomponents. During this process, their shape is unaltered, but the components undergo some shrinkage. If the load of filler material in the composite resin is high enough, no deformations and no cracks can be seen in the final ceramic components. We present different examples of complex 3D structures in composite material and in pure ceramic.