Nanoscribe is a German two-photon additive manufacturing system manufacturer. On June 25, 2019, Antarctic Bear learned from foreign media that the company recently launched a new machine, Quantum X. The latest system uses two-photon lithography to make nano-sized refractive and diffractive micro-optical elements that can be as small as 200 microns.
According to Dr. Michael Thiel, co-founder and CSO of Nanoscribe, "Beer's law imposes strong limitations on today's maskless lithography equipment. Quantum X overcomes these limitations with two-photon grayscale lithography, providing With unprecedented design freedom and ease of use, our customers are working at the forefront of micromachining. "
Nanoscribe was founded at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and now has a subsidiary in Shanghai and an office in the United States. The company receives strong financial and technical support from ZEISS, one of the oldest and largest optical system manufacturers in Germany.
The nanomarker system is based on two-photon absorption, a process in which molecules are excited to higher energy states. To make 3D objects using the two-photon process, a gel containing a monomer and a two-photon active photoinitiator is used as a raw material. A laser is irradiated onto a photosensitive material to form a nano-sized 3D printed object, in which the intensity of the absorbed light is the highest.
Photonic Professional GT is a product launched by Nanoscribe that has been widely used in scientific research and is used in Harvard Nanosystems Center, California Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and Keio University.
Recently, in addition to two-photon machines, Nanoscribe also produces negative resins called IP photoresins.
The Quantum X system was released at the LASER World of Photonics 2019 in Munich, Germany, and is specifically designed to manufacture diffractive optical elements (DOE). These miniature optics are used in the field of laser processing of materials because DOE can precisely control the path and "shape" of the laser. Micro-optics are also used in lidar scanning and laser-based medical treatment.
One of the most common methods of manufacturing a DOE is an integrated circuit-based manufacturing process, which may require up to twelve steps. However, with Quantum X machines, DOE can print directly from CAD. According to Nanoscribe, Quantum X will be the ideal solution for rapid prototyping in micro-optics, small batch production and research and development.