On the 12th Feb 2026, according to Tsinghua University, Academician Dai Qionghai and his team, after five years of research and development, have created computational holographic light-field (DISH) 3D printing technology, breaking the traditional trade-off between speed and precision in 3D printing. The technology reduces the exposure printing time for millimeter-scale complex structures to 0.6 seconds, setting a new record in volumetric 3D printing and providing a novel technological solution for biomedical engineering, micro-nano manufacturing, and other cutting-edge fields. The related results were published online the same day in the international journal Nature.
Traditional 3D printing technology has always struggled to balance efficiency and precision. Point-by-point, layer-by-layer printing achieves high accuracy but is time-consuming; millimeter-scale object processing typically takes tens of minutes. Existing volumetric printing techniques, such as computational axial lithography, can achieve single-shot fabrication but suffer from reduced precision in defocused areas due to sample rotation and limited depth of field, and they can only use high-viscosity materials, limiting practical applications.
The newly developed DISH 3D printing technology applies computational optics in reverse—from capturing light-field information to constructing physical entities—enabling a technological leap from information acquisition to object fabrication. The team overcame several key challenges, including high-speed multi-view light-field control, hologram pattern optimization for extended depth of field, and high-precision optical path correction via digital adaptive optics, with manipulating high-dimensional light fields to build 3D objects as the core. These advances represent multiple technical breakthroughs.
According to the team, this technology achieves tens of times faster exposure speed compared with traditional volumetric printing. A millimeter-scale structure can be printed in just 0.6 seconds (≈0.6 s). The ultra-short exposure time significantly reduces material flow effects and is compatible with all types of printing materials, ranging from low-viscosity aqueous solutions to high-viscosity resins. Additionally, through adaptive optical calibration combined with holographic algorithms, the depth of field with the same parameters has been extended from 50 micrometers (μm) to 1 centimeter (cm), while maintaining optical resolution of 11 μm within 1 cm, and the smallest independent printed feature reaches 12 μm. The printing container requires no special design or high-precision mechanical movement, enabling batch continuous printing inside fluid channels and greatly expanding application scenarios.
This breakthrough can be applied in tissue engineering, in-situ high-throughput drug screening, as well as industrial-scale fabrication of photonic computing devices and micro-modules. It also holds potential for multi-material stacked printing, empowering developments in flexible electronics, micro-robots, and other fields.
Source: Hua Ling, Science and Technology Daily