This paper is the first in a series of articles which comprehensively discuss the state-of-the-art in microscale additive manufacturing processes and present solutions to challenges impeding their scalability. In this paper, a class of additive manufacturing techniques known as Direct Ink Write/Jet Processes are explored which have been used by researchers for fabrication of microscale parts with varying geometric freedom. The paper identified the key challenges to high throughput 3D microfabrication using these processes, by analyzing the material constraints, geometric constraints, feature-size resolution limits and throughput limits. While some of these challenges can be overcome by novel precision engineering approaches, there are several others which need an acute understanding of material systems, process parameters and critical components. This paper identifies these challenges and suggests potential approaches to eliminate them with the goal of fabricating true-3D parts at high throughputs.

本文是一系列文章的第一篇，这些文章全面讨论了微型增材制造工艺的最新技术，并提出了解决阻碍其可扩展性的挑战的解决方案。在本文中，探索了一种被称为直接墨水写入/喷射工艺的增材制造技术，研究人员已将其用于制造具有不同几何自由度的微型零件。本文通过分析材料限制，几何限制，特征尺寸分辨率限制和吞吐量限制，确定了使用这些工艺进行高吞吐量3D微加工的主要挑战。尽管这些挑战中的一些可以通过新颖的精密工程方法来克服，但还有其他一些挑战需要对材料系统，工艺参数和关键组件有深刻的了解。