3D printer for glass microsystems

The Swiss company FEMTOprint, spin-off of the European Project Femtoprint, is now reality. FEMTOPRINT is an innovative technology based on the use of a femtolaser to create a large variety of micro-devices out of glass or other substrates with optical properties.

FEMTOPRINT technology consists in a table-top 3D printer to produce glass microsystems with nano-scale features. It applies an ultrafast low power femtosecond laser to fused silica or other transparent substrates with optical properties. The laser, focused inside glass, increases locally the refractive index of the material and increase the etching rate. The result is the possibility to create 3D optical waveguides or 3D micro –nano pattern with a maskless process.

This simple process opens interesting new opportunities for a wide range of users to create their own micro-systems rapidly and without the need for expensive infrastructure. A broad variety of microsystems with feature sizes down to the nano-scale can be produced. These patterns can be used to form integrated optics components or be ‘developed’ by chemically etching to form 3D structures like fluidic channels and micro-mechanical components. Worth noticing, sub-micron resolution can be achieved and sub-pattern smaller than the laser wavelength can be formed. Thanks to the low-energy required to pattern the glass, table-top femtosecond lasers not exceeding the volume of a shoe-box are sufficient to produce such micro- and nano- systems.

Nicoletta Casanova acts as CEO of the start-up from Ticino. She is a serial entrepreneur and has founded SMARTEC SA in 1996, a successful company active in the field of structural health monitoring with fiber optic technologies. Operating at international level, 2006 she merged the company to the Canadian Group ROCTEST Ltd. From 2009 to 2011 she also took the leadership of TELEMAC SAS, a French company belonging to the group. At the end of 2010 the entire group has been definitively sold to an American Holding and during two years she helped in the transition to the new owners.