Fabrication of microstructures using high-resolution stereolithography system

In order to build complex 3D microstructures, experimental studies are carried out to investigate the influence of the build parameters on the fabrication resolution using high-resolution stereolothography system. It is found that the less the ratio of laser power to scanning velocity, the thinner the vertical wall. It is also found that grooves with small width can be created with cured line width accurately compensated, lower laser power adopted and photopolymer having the higher critical exposure used in the SL process. As a result, components having vertical wall with the thickness of 0.011 mm and slot with the width of 0.034 mm are successfully fabricated. The experimental result demonstrates that the resolution of the novel stereolithography system is higher than that of the ordinary SL system, and the novel SL system has the ability to fabricate microstructures in scanning plan plane.