LLNL researchers have developed a new two-photon polymerization multimaterial resin formulation consisting of two reactively distinct polymer systems...
Advanced Manufacturing
Systems, methods and equipment to leverage digital twins and modeling / simulation for 3D printing as well as lithography for microelectronics. Laser powder bed fusion, liquid metal jetting, volumetric additive manufacturing, vat photo polymerization and more span a wide range of uses including structural components for high-performance auto and aerospace, novel engineering solutions, fusion target development, and bio/microchip packaging.
People
Capabilities
Engineered Materials and Manufacturing
- Materials research, device fabrication, and system integration, supporting micro- and nanoscale technologies such as quantum devices, photonic systems, high-power electronics, MEMS, biomedical implants, and advanced packaging.
- Center for Micro- and Nano Technology (CMNT) includes cleanroom space, characterization and biosafety labs, micro/nanofabrication tools, plasma and wet etching, thin-film deposition, lithography, packaging, and metrology.
- Center for Engineered Materials and Manufacturing (CEMM) is a multi-building LLNL center focused on additive manufacturing, engineered materials, and the tools needed to design, fabricate, characterize, and test advanced structures.
- Capabilities include extrusion-based, light-based, energy-based, and field-based additive manufacturing; materials synthesis and processing; design optimization; and characterization tools such as SEM, TEM, AFM, spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and HPC-enabled modeling.
- Polymer, ceramic, metal, carbon-based, colloidal, and nanomaterial systems.
Digital Engineering
- Design-to-build workflows that combine simulation, optimization, digital twins, fabrication, characterization, and testing.
- Advanced process monitoring, automation, and data-driven control to improve throughput, quality, repeatability, and waste reduction.
- Center for Design Optimization (CDO) is a computational design capability that helps turn advanced-manufacturing possibilities into buildable designs.
- Capabilities include shape and topology optimization, metamaterial design, design for additive manufacturing, reduced-order modeling, digital twins, and the Livermore Design Optimization library for complex engineering design.
Additive manufacturing / 3D printing through the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (AML)
- A 14,000-square-foot facility in the Livermore Valley Open Campus where LLNL scientists and engineers work with partners to develop new materials and manufacturing technologies.
- AML capabilities include direct ink writing, powder bed fusion, electrophoretic deposition, projection microstereolithography, two-photon lithography, selective laser melting, material evaluation, characterization, and access to high-performance computing modeling and simulation.
Nondestructive Evaluation
- Qualification methods for additively manufactured parts and complex assemblies.
- Nondestructive Characterization Institute (NCI) is a supporting capability for advanced manufacturing qualification and inspection, with x-ray, computed tomography, 4D CT, ultrasound, laser-based ultrasonics, eddy current, microwave imaging, modeling, simulation, and reconstruction software capabilities for assessing parts and assemblies without destroying them.
Precision Manufacturing and Materials Processing
- For components with tight tolerances and mission-specific performance requirements.
Facilities
Explore Technologies
IL-13998
Dual-Material for Two-photon Printing for High-resolution, Multi-material 3D Structure Manufacturing
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13693
LLNL researchers have developed an ammonia production method that circumvents the Haber–Bosch process altogether. The team’s research efforts...
Additive Manufacturing, Synthesis and Processing
2025-313
LLNL researchers have developed an approach to incorporate flow (either in stop-flow or continuous flow operation) to replace resin in the vial to...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing
2025-117
LLNL researchers have developed a synthetic methodology for making anisotropic polymer microparticles using a two phase high shear mixing protocol...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13989
LLNL researchers have developed a liquid two-photon polymerization (TPP) epoxy based resin formulation capable of flowing under low load, which...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing
IL-13971
LLNL researchers have developed a novel system that can shape the profile of the laser beam during printing or welding. The phase engineered approach...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13998
LLNL inventors have developed a new multi-wavelength laser scanning system for use in two-photon printing. By integrating multiple laser beams with...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13738
The Studying-Polymers-On a-Chip (SPOC) platform has three major components: (1) active-mixing direct-ink-write (2) in situ characterization substrates...
Manufacturing Automation
2025-018
LLNL researchers has developed a composite copper current collector formulation readily used in DIW 3D printing to guide lithium-ion plating...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Microfabrication
IL-13983
This invention addresses the critical challenge of achieving consistent results in additive manufacturing by introducing a novel system that...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13916
This LLNL invention is capable of generating, on-the-fly, tunable magnetic field strengths with voxel-by-voxel alignment. The approach is to use a...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13994
LLNL researchers have developed additive manufactured fuel targets for IFE. They have been successful in using TPL to fabricate low density (down to...
Additive Manufacturing, Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF), Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE)
IL-13925
The approach is to use appropriately doped semi-insulating gallium nitride to provide a high damage tolerant photoconductor with high responsivity to...
Additive Manufacturing, Optical Switches
IL-13934
LLNL researchers have developed a silicone based conductive, elastomeric 3D DIW printed structure with a lower wt.% conductive, composite filler to...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13962
This LLNL invention is comprised of (1) a volumetric subtractive manufacturing system which can tomographically manufacture 3D structures with...
Additive Manufacturing, Volumetric Additive Manufacturing
IL-13973
This invention focuses on the design of a fully interchangeable hub-droplet device apparatus for multiple droplet generation in parallel. The novel...
Microfabrication
IL-13643, IL-14010, IL-14011
LLNL researchers have developed a parallelized TPP system that combines metalens array and spatial light modulator (SLM) to manipulate the directed...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13907
The approach is to use quantitative phase imaging (QPI) using a common-path phase-shifting interferometry technique. A sequence of four phase shifts...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13847
LLNL researchers have developed a piezo-driven jetting powder AM method that provides better control of the packing of printed powder. Powder is fed...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13861
LLNL researchers have developed a method which utilizes functional alcohols to depolymerize polyurethane crosslinked networks. The functional alcohols...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13961
LLNL researchers have developed a novel photocurable silicone useful for producing three-dimensional objects via additive manufacturing. The resin...
Additive Manufacturing, Synthesis and Processing
IL-13967
Nozzle design and manufacturing greatly affects the performance of LMJ printers. This LLNL invention describes a novel multi-part nozzle design that...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13672
LLNL researchers have continued to develop their pioneering DIW 3D-printed glass optics technology that allows for the 3D printing of single- and...
Additive Manufacturing, Additively Manufactured (AM) Optics
IL-13954
LLNL researchers developed an approach that uses a Z-pinch magnetohydrodynamic (“ZMHD”) pulse as the pressure pulse to emit the liquid metal droplets...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13901
This invention, hereby called liquid metal binder jetting (LMBJ), uses a molten metal as the “binder” that is deposited on ceramic powder, resulting...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13819
LLNL researchers have designed and produced, both conductive and non-conductive porous electrode components manufactured for improved metal deposition...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13931
LLNL researchers have enhanced and expanded the IDEA technology, which fabricates micron-scale droplets that are then crosslinked in-air (within...
IL-13853
LLNL’s invention is a photopolymerizable polymer resin that consists of one or more nitrile-functional based polymers. The resin is formulated for SLA...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing
IL-13801
LLNL researchers refined custom mixing techniques and formulations in order to avoid clumping and fiber agglomerations for a flowable tailored...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13879
LLNL researchers have developed a fabrication process for creating 3D random interdigitated architectures of anodes and cathodes, eliminating the need...
3D Printing
IL-13885
LLNL’s invention combines four approaches to enable on-the-fly multi-resolution metal droplet printing: (1) a nozzle with two or more orifices of...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13874
LLNL researchers’ approach to this challenge is to design a modular valve subsystem that redirects the flow away from the main nozzle to an “exhaust”...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13841
LLNL researchers developed novel workflows where material is first cast into the LCE molds at room temperature. Upon curing, the mold is induced to...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13881
LLNL researchers have developed an innovative and uniform single-pot polymer multi-material system, based on a combination of 3 different reactive...
Additive Manufacturing, Synthesis and Processing
IL-13880
Three important aspects of this invention are: (1) the formulation of a photocurable resin containing a fluorophore that exhibits AIE behavior; (2)...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13461
The approach involves 3D printing hinges made of Pre-Stressed Polymers (“PSP”) onto polyimide (“PI”) substrates. These hinges are then able to fold in...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13866
LLNL’s approach to meet this challenge is to use a pneumatic DOD-LMJ method wherein the nozzle is filled with a molten pure metal or metal alloy...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13891
LLNL researchers have developed novel advanced manufactured biomimetic 3D-TPMS (triply periodic minimal surface) membrane architectures such as a 3D...
3D Printing
IL-13904
Electrodes that measure current and voltage are connected to the LPBF build plate by magnetic metal arms. These arms are placed on a steel weighted...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13367, IL-13588, IL-13748
LLNL has co-developed a number of technologies thatuse cold spray deposition that enable new designs for functional materials with low waste. The...
IL-13833
The novel approach is to make Ultem® into an ink for DIW or droplet printing by dissolving Ultem® in solvents, such as tetrahydrofuran. This produces...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13822
LLNL’s novel approach is to use Direct Ink Write (DIW) with a co-extrusion nozzle to enable the extrusion of multiple materials as one coil. With this...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13471
Beam Element-based Topology Optimization (“BETO”) is one of the conventional ways to design microstructures. It starts with an initial design that is...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13484
LLNL’s novel approach is to use waveguide-based devices and microwave energy to perform characterization of the projectile or droplet. Various...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13156, IL-13317, IL-13485, IL- 13641
LLNL’s approach to designing logic gates uses heuristic as well as with the Freedom and Constraint Topologies (FACT) methods; these gates are then...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13825
LLNL’s approach is to design and fabricate a massively-parallel microanode printhead using a custom complementary metal-oxide semiconductor integrated...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13818
LLNL researchers have developed an approach is to use pneumatic droplet ejection devices to rapidly 3D print solid metal parts that also have a...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13680
LLNL has developed a process to partially sinter starting material composed of smaller-sized powder particles to obtain a loose powder product that...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13684 and IL-13714
Improving the active material of the Zn anode is critical to improving the practicality of Zn-MnO2 battery technology. LLNL researchers have developed...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Electric Grid
IL-13308
To overcome challenges that existing techniques for creating 3DGs face, LLNL researchers have developed a method that uses a light-based 3D printing...
Additive Manufacturing, Synthesis and Processing
IL-13783
The novel approach developed by LLNL researchers is to use an electric field as the non-contact-based powder remover. The main components of the...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13756, IL-13779
LLNL’s novel approach utilizes a number of techniques to improve reconstruction accuracy: Better coding scheme-based techniques Hardware-assisted...
Manufacturing Improvements
IL-13706
This novel AM approach utilizes cavitation bubbles generated within liquid resin by ultrasonic energy that trigger, induce, or catalyze a...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13688 and IL-13767
LLNL’s MVAM method comprises of a microwave applicator array coupled to a time-reversal beam steering algorithm to focus and deposit microwave energy...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13792
The approach is to combine the techniques of 3D printing aligned carbon fiber composites and melt-3D printing of glasses in a non-obvious manner to...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13604
LLNL’s approach to producing refractive index matching (RIM) resin is to use a commercially available material known as polyhedral oligomeric...
Additive Manufacturing
IL-13504
To get the best of both worlds – the sensitivity of LC-MS with the speed of PS-MS – and a functional substrate that can maintain sample integrity...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing
IL-13186, IL-13234, IL-13370, IL-13372, IL-13373, IL-13381, IL-13572
LLNL researchers, through careful control over the chemistry, network formation, and crosslink density of the ink formulations as well as introduction...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing
IL-13803
LLNL’s method of 3D printing fiber-reinforced composites has two enabling features: Ability to deposit a range of materials with different...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing
CP02694
MBD captures the complete specification of a part in digital form and leverages (at least) the universal STEP file format. MBD has revolutionized...
Additive Manufacturing
Versatile Cold Spray (VCS) enables deposition of brittle materials, such as thermoelectrics, magnets, and insulators, while retaining their functional...
Additive Manufacturing, Manufacturing Improvements
44519, IL-13343
Livermore researchers have developed a method for implementing closed-loop control in extrusion printing processes by means of novel sensing, machine...
Manufacturing Automation
37518
LLNL has developed a system and method that accomplishes volumetric fabrication by applying computed tomography (CT) techniques in reverse...
Volumetric Additive Manufacturing
38918
LLNL researchers have designed and tested performance characteristics for a multichannel pyrometer that works in the NIR from 1200 to 2000 nm. A...
Additive Manufacturing
38018 (IL-13247)
Livermore researchers have developed a method of fabricating functional polymer-based particles by crosslinking UV-curable polymer drops in mid-air...
Microfabrication
37018
LLNL has developed an optically clear iodine-doped resist that increases the mean atomic number of the part. AM parts fabricated with this resist...
Additive Manufacturing
36518
LLNL has solved the challenges of depth-resolved parallel TPL by using a temporal focusing technique in addition to the spatial focusing technique...
Additive Manufacturing
36718
The LLNL method for optimizing as built optical designs uses insights from perturbed optical system theory and reformulates perturbation of optical...
Manufacturing Simulation, Precision Engineering
36118, IL-13226
By combining 3D printing and dealloying., researchers at LLNL have developed a method for fabricating metal foams with engineered hierarchical...
Additive Manufacturing, Material Design
34717
LLNL researchers have developed a system that relies on machine learning to monitor microfluidic devices. The system includes (at least) a...
Manufacturing Automation
32717, IL-13046, IL-13186
LLNL researchers have developed a novel method of 3D printing regular microstructured architectures and subsequent complex macrostructures from...
3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Synthesis and Processing
29615
LLNL scientists have developed a new metal additive manufacturing technique that uses diode lasers in conjunction with a programmable mask to generate...
Additive Manufacturing
26213, ILs 12962, 12963,12585, 12567, 12534, 12495, 12406, 12298, 12283, 12235, 12119
Livermore materials scientists and engineers are designing and building new materials that will open up new spaces on many Ashby material selection...
Additive Manufacturing
Stories
LLNL researchers break speed and scale barriers in 3D nanofabrication with new meta-optics platform
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) engineers and scientists, in collaboration with Stanford University, have demonstrated a breakthrough 3D nanofabrication approach that transforms two-photon lithography (TPL) from a slow, lab-scale technique into a wafer-scale manufacturing tool witho
3D-printed helixes show promise as THz optical materials
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have optimized and 3D-printed helix structures as optical materials for Terahertz (THz) frequencies, a potential way to address a technology gap for next-generation telecommunications, non-destructive evaluation, chemical/biological sen
Unique resin allows 3D printing method to add and subtract
The technology — produced using unique LLNL facilities, capabilities and expertise — can be licensed by advanced manufacturing companies and used in existing 3D printers to save time an
California awards grant to LLNL and DarmokTech to develop recyclable sodium batteries
To address this critical energy need, the California Energy Commission recently awarded local startup DarmokTech and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) a grant of $2 million over three years to pursue recyclable, sodium polymer-based batteries.
Lab scientists win four 2025 R&D 100 awards
The trade journal R&D World Magazine recently announced the winners of the awards, often called the “Oscars of innovation,” recognizing new commercial products, technologies and materials that are a
LLNL licensee, Seurat, with investment from NVIDIA is transforming digital manufacturing
Seurat Technologies, a Massachusetts-based startup, licensed a LLNL-invented metal AM technology in 2015 with the intention of commercializing a high-speed, high-resolution 3D printer to
Four LLNL teams to attend Energy I-Corps Cohort 20
In a record setting year for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), four teams of LLNL researchers will attend the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy I-Corps (EIC)
LLNL looks to revolutionize 3D printing through microwave technology
Through a new process a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) team is calling Microwave Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (MVAM), researchers have introduced an innovative new approach to 3D printing using microwave energy to cure materials, opening the
LLNL wins three 2024 technology commercialization grants
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers continue to capture key Department of Energy (DOE) Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) grants with three new project grants announced in 2024.
Energy I-Corps experience shines light on bringing specialty resin to the silicone 3D-printing market
At LLNL, Huang and Ford are working toward developing a new method to make high-performance silicone parts that can be 3D printed and cured using ultraviolet light.
LLNL and Meta engineers develop 3D-printed material with potential for more lifelike wearables
Engineers and chemists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Meta have developed a new kind of 3D-printed material capable of replicating characteristics of biological tissue, an advanceme
Energy Inks wins regional FLC award
LLNL developed technology known as Energy Inks has won a best in region award for the Far West region from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC). LLNL researchers are supported by the Lab’s
LLNL licensee, Seurat Technologies, partners with Siemens Energy
Seurat Technologies announced an agreement to develop 59 tons of additively manufactured metal components for Siemens Energy turbines. Seurat’s pioneering approach was originally developed
Livermore researchers collect three awards among the top 100 industrial inventions
R&D World Magazine recently announced their 2022 award winners.
LLNL and Ampcera Partnership Using 3D printing for Next Generation Lithium-Ion Batteries
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is partnering with Ampcera Inc. to develop solvent-free Laser Powder Bed Fusion additive manufacturing technologies for the fabrication of 3D-structured lithium battery cathodes, that could result in faster charging and higher-energy-density batteries.
Innovation and Partnerships Office employees capture two national awards
The Department of Energy’s Technology Transfer Working Group recently awarded two Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employees with “Best in Class” awards during their May spring meeting in Washington, D.C.
NASA funds LLNL to demonstrate 'replicator' 3D printer to produce cartilage in space
NASA's funding will enable LLNL and Kentucky-based space life sciences company, Space Tango to mature prototypes of the “replicator” technology — a ultrafast 3D printer co-developed by LLNL and the University of California, Berkeley — for bioprinting in microgravity on the International Space Sta
New laser-based volumetric additive manufacturing method can 3D print glass in seconds
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley have demonstrated the ability to 3D-print microscopic objects in silica glass, part of an effort to produce delicate, layer-less optics that can be built in seconds
Q&A with James DeMuth, Seurat Technologies CEO and LLNL Technology Transfer Partner
Seurat Technologies was born from a problem CEO James DeMuth encountered while working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility. The solution is a new way to dramatically speed up large-scale metal 3D manufacturing while assuring high quality finished products.
LLNL Startup, Seurat Technologies, Successfully Closed $21M Series B financing Round
Seurat Technologies, the 3D metal printing leader that is making manufacturing better for people and the planet, has closed a $21M Series B extension with investments from new investors Xerox Ventures and SIP Global Partners.
LLNL team develops real-time diagnostic for Liquid Metal Jetting 3D printing
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is developing a new diagnostic tool that can determine the quality of metal droplets and monitor liquid metal jetting prints in real time.
LLNL Expands Livermore Valley Open Campus
Leaders from the National Nuclear Security Administration, Congressional representatives and local elected officials gathered at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to celebrate the expansion of the Livermore Valley Open Campus.
Inaugural Industry Forum Inspires Machine Learning Community
LLNL held its first-ever Machine Learning for Industry Forum on August 10-12.
LLNL and Collaborators Use 3D Printing to Improve Electrochemical Reactor Performance
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and their collaborators are leveraging 3D printing to improve the performance of electrochemical reactors used to convert CO2 into useful energy sources, chemicals and material feedstocks.
How NIF Inspired Groundbreaking 3D Metal-Printing Technology
The decades-long quest for fusion energy and an innovative technique for protecting the National Ignition Facility's optical components from laser damage were the inspiration for a new high-speed 3D manufacturing technology that’s about to enter the market.
Seurat Technologies Closes $41 Million Funding Round
Seurat Technologies closed a $41 million Series B round of funding led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund. The funds will be used to further accelerate the development and commercialization of Seurat’s pioneering metal additive manufacturing technology, Area Printing™
Seurat Technologies: A Journey from Lab and Lasers to Product and Market
Good partnerships that lead to great companies and products are at the heart of the Innovation and Partnerships Office.
LLNL Wins Two 2020 FLC Regional Awards for Tech Transfer
Two teams of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers have garnered regional awards for technology transfer. The first award is for Outstanding Technology Development involving a new approach to manufacturing microcapsules.
LLNL wins Tech Transfer Award for its Advanced Manufacturing Lab
LLNL and three Lab employees have garnered a national technology transfer award for the creation of the LLNL’s Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (AML).
Technique Harvests Waste Heat from Untapped Sources
LLNL researchers and collaborators have used an additive manufacturing technique, called cold-spray deposition, to create thermoelectric generators that can harvest waste heat - a huge untapped resource - from previously inaccessible sources.
HPC4Manufacturing project aims at improving thin-film processes used in LED lights
The HPC4Manufacturing program funds LLNL researchers to work with companies and address an industrial need. A CRADA with Applied Materials to improve thin film deposition is an example of the impact of this program.
HPC4Energy Innovation Program announces first awards for public/private partnerships
Nine public/private projects were awarded more than $2 million from the Department of Energy (DOE).
