U.S. manufacturers rank 3D printing innovation among top 10

The annual SME Innovation Watch List was released in March along with the society’s 2013 list of Innovations That Could Change the Way You Manufacture.

“While much of the tech world discusses the latest phone, computer, etc., the SME Innovation Watch Committee discusses what makes that new gadget possible,” says Lauralyn McDaniel, manager of the SME’s Innovation Watch Committee. “They don’t stop at what we can do today, but look to what is possible.”

Associate Professor Frank Niklaus, who heads the research team at KTH’s Department for Micro and Nanosystems, says that the research will enable small-scale manufacturing companies to easily produce nano-scale silicon structures, without the costs of full-scale clean-room laboratories and production technology that is optimized for large production volumes.

“This new 3D printing method has the potential to greatly increase the innovation power of smaller companies and individual researchers, by giving them access they need to smaller numbers of customized silicon micro- and nanostructures,” Niklaus says.

The technology developed at KTH consists of an additive layer-by-layer process for defining 3D patterns in silicon, using a focused ion beam, followed by silicon deposition. The layered 3D silicon structures are defined by repeating these two steps over and over, with a final etching step in which the excess silicon material is dissolved away. In the team’s vision of the future, the structure would first be designed in a 3D drawing programme, then sent to a 3D printer that recreates the structure in silicon, layer by layer from the bottom up.

3D printing tools using materials other than silicon – such as polymers, metals or ceramics – already exist, but Niklaus says that they are not suitable for micro- and nanostructures.

Sensors and devices, such as accelerometers, or Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), are engineered from silicon – the same material used to manufacture integrated circuits. MEMS sensors and devices are used for motion control in mobile phones and cars, and can also be used in industry and in medical technology.

“Giving engineers access to easy specialized manufacturing processes for a wide selection of advanced sensors opens up completely new and creative solutions in fields like medical technology,” Niklaus says. “This means that manufacturing of specially-designed sensors for a few patients or tailor-maid applications for industry can be accomplished at a much lower cost.”

The research team, which includes Niklaus, Andreas Fischer, Kristinn Gylfason, Gunnar Malm and Lyubov Belova, will meet with manufacturing practitioners  in May at SME’s annual conference in Baltimore, in the U.S., with an expected 500 participants worldwide.

“The research team will get a chance to present our technology to people in the manufacturing industry who might actually benefit from it in the future,” Niklaus says. “This kind of exposure is invaluable.”

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) connects researchers with industry experts and other resources worldwide, working to spread manufacturing knowledge among its 24,000 members, representing 21,000 companies worldwide, and the broader manufacturing community in fields from aerospace to energy to medicine.

Marie Androv 

SME’s 2013 annual manufacturing innovations list

Read more about the innovation list

Read more about the 3D printing research

For more information, contact Frank Niklaus, frank.niklaus@ee.kth.se, 076-216 73 49.