Low-cost 3D printed optics for super-resolution multifocal structured illumination microscopy

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Christopher, Jay and Rooney, Liam M. and Butterworth, Charlie and McConnell, Gail and Bauer, Ralf (2026) Low-cost 3D printed optics for super-resolution multifocal structured illumination microscopy. Biomedical Optics Express, 17 (2). pp. 769-783. ISSN 2156-7085 (https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.583760)

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Abstract

We present a new low-cost 3D printing method of fabricating optical quality lenslet arrays for integration in a multifocal structured illumination microscope (mSIM), achieving super-resolution fluorescence imaging using 3D printed optics for the first time. We detail the design and manufacturing processes to produce high-quality 3D printed optics, showing their comparable surface roughness of 30 ± 2.5 nm for the 3D printed elements compared to 37 ± 1.4 nm for commercial glass optics. A 3D printed lenslet array with a ‘honeycomb’ geometry and 1.2 mm lenslet diameter was compared to a high-end glass commercial lenslet array with 250 µm lenslet diameter and a lower cost commercial lenslet array with a 1 mm by 1.4 mm lenslet footprint. The imaging performance of the different optics was benchmarked using a custom mSIM setup by quantifying the beam profile homogeneity and the experimental lateral resolution. The mSIM setup incorporating the different microlens arrays was tested using a commercial bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cell specimen, highlighting an achievable resolution enhancement from 237 nm ± 12 nm with laser-scanning illumination to 151 ± 12 nm using the high-end commercial microlens array and from 232 ± 18 nm with laser-scanning illumination to 151 nm ± 12 nm using the 3D printed honeycomb lenslet array. Advantages of improved background rejection through the custom lenslet geometry are discussed, highlighting the super-resolution microscope performance achievable using custom 3D printed optics costing as low as £0.50 to produce.

ORCID iDs

Christopher, Jay ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0707-8947, Rooney, Liam M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2237-501X, Butterworth, Charlie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0380-0642, McConnell, Gail ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7213-0686 and Bauer, Ralf ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7927-9435;
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