Photia Incorporated is developing technology for high-throughput manufacturing of 3d nanostructured materials for energy applications. Materials having nanometer scale three dimensional structures could lead to dramatic improvements in solid state lighting, radiative cooling, photovoltaics, batteries, lightweighting, and membranes. However, no existing manufacturing process is capable of building these 3D nanostructures quickly, continuously, and at industrial scale. Top-down methods like projection lithography and nanoimprint lithography can build precise nanostructures in 2D. However, they are too expensive and slow to manufacture 3D nanostructures at industrial scale. Bottom-up methods like self-assembly can be cheap and quick, but have high defect rates and are limited in the types of structures that can be produced. Photia has pioneered advances in holographic lithography to enable high-speed, continuous nanomanufacturing of 3D nanostructured materials. This technique uses four or more lasers to etch 3D patterns into light sensitive materials. The etched material can be used as a part or can serve as a template to build nanostructured materials using high-volume industrial techniques like electroplating or chemical vapor deposition.
