| Abstract Scope |
Two photon polymerization-based additive manufacturing offers many opportunities over conventional processes for scalable mass production of medical devices, particularly those with small-scale features. The two photon polymerization process shows a nonlinear (quadratic) relationship with the incident light intensity. As such, polymerization only takes place in locations where energies exceed the excitation threshold of the photoinitiator; negligible absorption takes place except in the immediate vicinity of the focal volume. The nonlinearity of the two photon absorption phenomenon enables the solidification of material to occur well below the diffraction limit. We have used two photon polymerization to prepare medically-relevant structures out of photosensitive polymers (e.g., polyethylene glycol diacrylate hydrogels) and organically-modified ceramic materials. Two photon polymerization-based processing of a variety of three-dimensional microstructured medical devices, including microneedles, small prostheses, and scaffolds for tissue engineering will be considered. |