Micromachining materials such as ceramics and polymers for use in the medical implant or electronics industry is becoming an increasingly important activity for UK industry. Creating features on the micron scale or depositing coatings on the nanoscale has enabled the above industrial sectors to develop new solutions to such applications as: the acceptance of implants by the human body or patterning of thin conduction layers on touch-screen displays at a high resolution, allowing the phone's owner to watch movies while travelling. All of these breakthroughs in medical devices and microelectronics, are made possible by the creation of small features. Laser Induced Micro Plasma Processing (LIMP2) will be an enabling tool allowing the production of features smaller than the actual laser spot which can be as less than 10 um. LIMP2 would also allow lasers to be used on materials that up to now have been impossible to machine by laser. The aim of the project is to develop an understanding of how a plasma, a highly energetic hot gas, and laser beam interact at the surface of different substrates such as polymers, glass, metals and ceramics. It will attempt to answer such questions as "Can we control the plasma-laser beam interaction using electrical and magnetic fields and in so doing create interesting effects that will allow the plasma to be pinched into an area that is smaller than the laser spot diameter"? In so doing LIMP2 will allow a relative inexpensive laser system to machine directly on the nanoscale. LIMP2 will introduce a new manufacturing technology that will be employed in the manufacturing of high value high performance electronic goods. This will benefit the UK suppliers of laser sources into the electronics production machine market. The other benefit that the general public will see in terms of healthcare. An important application in the medical field is microstructure texturing of medical implants such as stents and artificial joints. LIMP2 can be used to create novel microstructures that have the property of being able to control how a living cell interacts with the surface of the implant. The structures will allow one type of cell to grow while suppressing other types that would prove detrimental to the patient's health, causing swelling of a joint and possible rejection of the implant. The UK companies who are supporting the project will also gain immediate benefits from a successful conclusion of the project. Two laser companies are working together to support the project, one based in the Midlands the other in the South West of England. LIMP2 would open new markets for their laser systems allowing them to compete in the competitive microelectronics market in the Far East. Two of the projects supporting companies Biomer Technology and MicroSystems plan to use LIMP2 in medical devices market but on very different materials. Biomer Technology produces a polymeric coating that they use to coat medical devices. Biomer is interested in LIMP2 micro-machined surfaces that can control cell growth. MicroSystems on the other hand produce micro-moulds for major pharmaceutical companies. MicroSystems see LIMP2 being used on their micro-moulds to produce surfaces that are hydrophilic, (likes water) or hydrophobic, repels water molecules. This type of control over a surface property is very useful not only in the medical device sector but in other sectors such as aerospace, electronics, and the defence industry.

HIPERLAM is an SME driven Research and Innovation Action (RIA) well-aligned to the Factories of the Future (FoF) Initiative with a strong emphasis upon demonstrating superior cost and speed performance in end-to-end processes featuring laser-based additive manufacturing in two key applications requiring high resolution printed conductive metallic lines, namely laser printed RFID antenna and laser printed Fingerprint sensors. Existing subtractive top-down process will be replaced by HIPERLAM’s additive process for both Applications. Process maps illustrate the existing multiple processing steps compared to HIPERLAM’s significantly fewer steps. Real-time diagnostics are included and Modelling investigations will be undertaken to support optimisation. The promise of HIPERLAM’s high resolution laser based additive manufacturing solutions is to transform the manufacturing processing speed by 10x for laser printed RFID antenna (Application 1) and 5x in the case of the lead-time for laser printed fingerprint sensor design (Application 2). Similarly, HIPERLAM promises to reduce costs by 20x and 50% respectively for Application 1 and Application 2. HIPERLAM features high resolution LIFT Printing and Laser Sintering utilising novel high viscous inks to achieve printed conductive metallic structures down to 10 µm resolution over large areas (10 to 1000 cm2) suitable for scale-up to full production. The targeted applications address global market needs and will support mainstream adoption of AM processes in EU industry by displacing existing processes with smart, flexible, digitally enabled manufacturing technology. HIPERLAM business cases promise significant revenue growth in both application spaces and in the potential for consortium partners to establish themselves in pre-eminent positions in high resolution, low cost, high throughput AM technology.

In a consortium led by Heriot-Watt with St Andrews, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Dundee, this proposal for an "EPSRC CDT in Industry-Inspired Photonic Imaging, Sensing and Analysis" responds to the priority area in Imaging, Sensing and Analysis. It recognises the foundational role of photonics in many imaging and sensing technologies, while also noting the exciting opportunities to enhance their performance using emerging computational techniques like machine learning. Photonics' role in sensing and imaging is hard to overstate. Smart and autonomous systems are driving growth in lasers for automotive lidar and smartphone gesture recognition; photonic structural-health monitoring protects our road, rail, air and energy infrastructure; and spectroscopy continues to find new applications from identifying forgeries to detecting chemical-warfare agents. UK photonics companies addressing the sensing and imaging market are vital to our economy (see CfS) but their success is threatened by a lack of doctoral-level researchers with a breadth of knowledge and understanding of photonic imaging, sensing and analysis, coupled with high-level business, management and communication skills. By ensuring a supply of these individuals, our CDT will consolidate the UK industrial knowledge base, driving the high-growth export-led sectors of the economy whose photonics-enabled products and services have far-reaching impacts on society, from consumer technology and mobile computing devices to healthcare and security. Building on the success of our CDT in Applied Photonics, the proposed CDT will be configured with most (40) students pursuing an EngD degree, characterised by a research project originated by a company and hosted on their site. Recognizing that companies' interests span all technology readiness levels, we are introducing a PhD stream where some (15) students will pursue industrially relevant research in university labs, with more flexibility and technical risk than would be possible in an EngD project. Overwhelming industry commitment for over 100 projects represents a nearly 100% industrial oversubscription, with £4.38M cash and £5.56M in-kind support offered by major stakeholders including Fraunhofer UK, NPL, Renishaw, Thales, Gooch and Housego and Leonardo, as well as a number of SMEs. Our request to EPSRC for £4.86M will support 35 students, from a total of 40 EngD and 15 PhD researchers. The remaining students will be funded by industrial (£2.3M) and university (£0.93M) contributions, giving an exceptional 2:3 cash gearing of EPSRC funding, with more students trained and at a lower cost / head to the taxpayer than in our current CDT. For our centre to be reactive to industry's needs a diverse pool of supervisors is required. Across the consortium we have identified 72 core supervisors and a further 58 available for project supervision, whose 1679 papers since 2013 include 154 in Science / Nature / PRL, and whose active RCUK PI funding is £97M. All academics are experienced supervisors, with many current or former CDT supervisors. An 8-month frontloaded residential phase in St Andrews and Edinburgh will ensure the cohort gels strongly, and will equip students with the knowledge and skills they need before beginning their research projects. Business modules (x3) will bring each cohort back to Heriot-Watt for 1-week periods, and weekend skills workshops will be used to regularly reunite the cohort, further consolidating the peer-to-peer network. Core taught courses augmented with specialist options will total 120 credits, and will be supplemented by professional skills and responsible innovation training delivered by our industry partners and external providers. Governance will follow our current model, with a mixed academic-industry Management Committee and an independent International Advisory Board of world-leading experts.

Manufacturing with lasers has advanced from the purely science fiction ideas of the 1950's and 60's to be a real world, critical step, in the manufacture of an enormous range of products. Over the years a range of new techniques and processes have been developed in research labs and companies across the world. One of the more important of these has been the development of beam-shaping technology. Laser processing of material is driven by transfer of energy from the laser beam into the material, and can be a mixture of thermal, photo-chemical and optical non-linear effects. By changing the shape of a laser beam where it impacts a material it is possible to mould how and where energy is transferred. This then allows for more precise control of the laser-material interaction and hence of the manufacturing process itself. This has led to improvements in the way cutting, welding and similar processes work with improvements in quality and efficiency. However these beam-shaping technologies are limited. They only shape in two dimensions, i.e. in a single focal plane. This is not a big problem for "surface processes" as the plane at which the laser beam is formed into the right shape can be made, with some care in focussing the beam, to be the surface of the material. However for materials with an irregular shape, imprecise thicknesses, or that are at least partially transparent to the laser, this is a challenge. It is also a challenge when trying to take advantage of the range of exciting new technologies based on non-linear phenomena. Non-linear laser processes typically limit the laser material interaction to only those regions of the laser beam where there is an extremely high intensity i.e. at the focus. By moving the focus inside the material it then possible to manufacture from the inside out. However, because the light interacts with the material not just on the surface but throughout the focal volume two dimensional beam shaping is insufficient; full 3D control is instead required. Within this research project we will take advantage of the wave-nature of light. Through careful shaping of a glass optic it is possible to bend different parts of a laser beam to overlap in a controlled manner. As the beams overlap they will interfere creating regions of high and low energy. Though careful calculation it is possible to manipulate this with each optic designed to give a precise interference pattern which results in a specific energy distribution; to shape the beam in three dimensions. By shaping the laser beam throughout the focal region it will be possible to open entirely new methods of manufacture from more effective means to cut toughened glass (like mobile phones or iPads), dice and drill semiconductors (for computer chips), make precision medical devices, and create new and much more effective surgical procedures. The potential applications are truly enormous, transformative and will change how and what we can manufacture.