A Benchmark Artifact to Evaluate the Manufacturing of Microfeatures by Digital Light Processing Stereolithography

Abstract

Suitable benchmark artifacts are needed for assessing the technological capabilities and limitations of a specific process or for comparing the performances of different processes. Only a few benchmark artifacts have been specifically designed for features with microscale dimensions, even if their manufacturing is becoming very common due to the increasing demand for miniaturized parts or objects with microscale features. In this study, a suitable benchmark part is designed to evaluate the geometrical performance of a digital light processing (DLP) stereolithography (SLA) system for manufacturing microfeatures. The effect of the main process parameters (i.e., layer thickness and exposure time) and the feature position within the building platform on the process performance was assessed by a specifically studied experimental campaign. The results show that both the analyzed process parameters influence the minimum feasible size of protruding features and that the feature position influences the dimensional accuracy.