Researchers at the University of Utah's John and Marcia Price College of Engineering, in collaboration with researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, have demonstrated a new method of 3D printing that avoids the leaky seams that come with the layer-by-layer process.
Using a nanoscale "mask" that diffracts laser light into a holographic pattern of the desired shape, the process fuses the printing material into a solid in one shot. The process can take as little as 7.5 seconds, a stark contrast to the hours other laser-based printing methods can take.
In a paper published earlier in 2026, the Price researchers demonstrated this technique by printing microtubule assemblies with individual diameters as small as 6 micrometers. Long, thin tubes were a natural fit for the printing technique's capabilities, but those capabilities are already expanding.
Now, along with colleagues from UT Austin, they have demonstrated even more complicated prints, including ones with hollow voids along multiple axes.
Their latest study, published in the journal Science Advances, was led by Rajesh Menon, professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, along with lab member Dajun Lin. They collaborated with The University of Texas at Austin's Michael Cullinan, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Zachariah A. Page, associate professor of chemistry, as well as members of their labs.
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