Boston Micro Fabrication opens new R&D center in San Diego
The aim of the BMF Research Institute is to develop and incubate end-product ideas that are uniquely enabled by BMF's micro-3D printing platform
Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF) has opened a new research and development center in San Diego, California. The BMF Research Institute was formed specifically to develop and incubate end-product ideas that are uniquely enabled by BMF’s micro-3D printing platform.
Since shipping the first systems in 2018, over 300 of BMF’s micro-3D printing systems have been adopted by customers worldwide. These systems are being used for prototyping, development, research, and production qualification. Industry segments that have most embraced this platform are in fields such as electronics, optics/photonics, medical devices, microfluidics, and life sciences.
BMF’s Projection Micro Stereolithography, or PµSL platform, was developed to fill a high-value need in the additive manufacturing market that was not being sufficiently addressed by incumbent technologies. These are parts that are typically on the centimeter scale, with tolerance requirements often in the lower tens of micron range. Industrial customers, having tested and utilized these systems for development, are now seeing the potential for end-part production.
The opening of the BMF Research Institute in San Diego is the beginning of a second leg for the company. “After being in the market for a few years, we now see that there are multiple end-products that are uniquely enabled by our platform,” said John Kawola, CEO of Boston Micro Fabrication. “We are currently working with researchers, product designers, and other collaboration partners on new product ideas. We recently raised additional capital to continue the development of our platform. But these funds will also be used for end-product development and commercialization. We expect these two legs will be complementary to each other with the broader goal of unleashing the power of additive manufacturing in micro-manufacturing.”
These efforts are led by Dr. Chunguang Xia, CTO, and co-founder of Boston Micro Fabrication. The new center will engage in research and engineering with cooperation from other BMF engineering groups and research centers in Shenzhen, Chongqing, Tokyo, and Boston.
