Recent Progress on Manufacturing Technologies in Layer-by-layer Mode for the Fabrication of Polymer-based Surface Microstructures

Abstract

Polymer-based surface microstructures have been widely utilized in soft robotic, flexible electronics, bionic machinery, biomedical, tissue engineering and other fields. The applications of layer-by-layer manufacturing technologies to fabricate polymer-based surface microstructures can solve the problems of traditional micro-imprinting, lithography, point-by-point and line-by-line mode manufacturing processes, such as long processing cycles, low efficiency, and difficulty in demolding large-surfaced microstructures. The development of the manufacturing methods in layer-by-layer mode for polymer-based microstructures becomes the hot topic of advanced manufacturing technology. Firstly, the commonly used polymer-based surface microstructures and their manufacturing materials are presented. Then, the recent progress of lithography, nano-imprinting, digital light processing based 3D printing, energy field-assisted manufacturing, self-assembly technologies are studied, including the manufacturing principle, fabrication process and their typical applications. Finally, the development trends of polymer-based surface microstructure design, fabrication, and applications are summarized and forecasted, and future development trends of polymer-based surface microstructures manufacturing technologies are concluded.