UC Santa Barbara has secured $1.15 million from the National Science Foundation to acquire a nanoscale 3D printing system based on two-photon photolithography (2PP), technology that moves additive manufacturing beyond flat layering into true three-dimensional structures at resolutions down to 10 nanometers.
The grant, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Galan Moody alongside four co-principal investigators, will bring one of the most advanced rapid nanoprinting systems in the country to UCSB’s Nanofabrication Facility. Unlike conventional 3D printing, which builds objects by stacking flat layers, 2PP produces complex geometries with genuine depth, unconstrained by surface planes or traditional fabrication limits.
“The unique capabilities of this system open the door to new approaches to nano- and micro-manufacturing of complex structures and devices that are no longer constrained by geometry nor confined to two-dimensional planes,” the authors wrote in their proposal.
While nanoscale lithography is available through off-campus commercial foundries, Moody notes a critical distinction: none can produce complex 3D structures at nanoscale resolution with the throughput needed for rapid prototyping. The new system addresses that gap directly, and UCSB joins a small number of U.S. universities with access to tools at this level.
One Printer, Five Research Frontiers
The equipment serves a deliberately broad research base. Moody will use it to develop photonic chip designs for quantum entanglement distribution and networking. Physicist Andrew Jayich will apply the system to microprint 3D ion traps for optical clocks, prototyping structures that off-campus vendors currently cannot fabricate at the required speed.
Bioengineering professor Marley Dewey will print patterned biomaterial scaffolds for skeletal repair research and coral regeneration applications. Chemical engineer Sumita Pennathur will fabricate microfluidic channels on chips for therapeutic implant systems. Physicist Andrea Young will use the tool to build nano-SQUIDs, superconducting quantum interference devices, attachable to atomic-force microscopes for advanced material characterization.
Building the Workforce Pipeline
Beyond research, Moody has positioned workforce development as a central priority. Training will extend beyond UCSB graduate students to include local community college students, through programs such as CC-PRIME, the Central Coast Partnership for Regional Industry-focused Micro/Nanotechnology Education, run through the California NanoSystems Institute and anchored by Santa Barbara City College.
“If students have a certification saying, ‘I’ve gone through these boot camps,’ then they become valuable assets to companies,” Moody says. “That might lead some students to think, ‘Hey, I can do this. I’ve got the skills. Let me go get a job now.'”
The program connects students directly with regional technology companies, building a micro and nanotechnology workforce that does not require advanced degrees to participate in cutting-edge fabrication work.
2PP Moves Into University Labs
2PP has long been recognized as the most precise additive manufacturing process available but access has historically been limited to a handful of specialized facilities and commercial vendors. Most university researchers working at the nanoscale have had to rely on off-campus foundries that can deliver resolution but not the complex three-dimensional geometries that next-generation devices in quantum photonics, microfluidics, and biomedicine increasingly require. The UCSB grant addresses that gap directly.
The broader academic use of 2PP is accelerating. Researchers from TU Wien, Caltech, and RWTH Aachen University, working with materials company UpNano, conducted the first-ever standardized mechanical testing of bulk specimens produced via 2PP, a milestone the team framed as critical to moving the technology toward industrial application.
Separately, researchers at the University of Birmingham and the University of Southern Queensland used 2PP to fabricate microneedles with side channels for drug delivery, while a team at the University of Freiburg partnered with Nanoscribe to produce glass silica microstructures at submicrometer resolution with surface roughness as low as 6 nanometers.
As 2PP moves from commercial foundries into university labs, in-house access is no longer the bottleneck, what researchers build with it is. UCSB is making that case across five disciplines at once.
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Featured image shows Co-PI Andrew Jayich will use the new technology to create ion traps like the one shown here. Image via Brian Long.
