Multiscale ceramic components from preceramic polymers by hybridization of vat polymerization-based technologies

A novel approach to fabricate ceramic structures at multiple scales in a single component, based on the hybridization of additive manufacturing technologies, was developed by combining 3D macro-stereolithography (Digital Light Processing, DLP) with two-photon lithography (2PL), to produce cm-sized sample geometries with sub-μm surface features. The preceramic structures in the sub-μm scale were realized by 2PL directly on easily manageable DLP macro-sized samples of the same ceramic composition. In this way, preceramic structures presenting both features typical of DLP printers (with a minimum size of around 50 μm) and features well below their resolution limit were realized. We report here, for the first time, the realization of polymer-derived ceramic SiOC ceramic components structured in 3D across several length scales (with micron and mesoscale 3D features), produced by pyrolysis at 1000 °C of preceramic parts, without shape distortion during the pyrolysis step.