Fabrication of complex optical phantoms using on-the-fly multi-filament mixing 3-D printing

Fabrication of complex optical phantoms using on-the-fly multi-filament mixing 3-D printing | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Fabrication of complex optical phantoms using on-the-fly multi-filament mixing 3-D printing Rahul Ragunathan, Miguel Mireles, Edward Xu, Aiden Lewis, Morris Vanegas, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5500473/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 21 Mar, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 11 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We report a method to directly 3-D print complex heterogeneous optical phantoms with programmable tissue-mimicking absorption and scattering properties. The proposed approach utilizes commercially available multi-color mixing extruders and off-the-shelf polylactic acid (PLA) filaments, making this technique low-cost and broadly accessible. We systematically characterized optical properties, including both absorption and reduced scattering coefficients, at a wide range of mixing ratios of gray, white and translucent filaments and validated our hypothesis of a linear-mixing model between the filament mixing ratios and the resulting optical properties. Various techniques were used to design and fabricate sophisticated solid phantoms, including the design of color-purging towers, and the optimization of several printing parameters to improve print quality. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technique for generating anatomically complex phantoms with tunable optical absorption and scattering properties within tissue-relevant ranges, we designed and fabricated three heterogeneous optical phantoms. One of the presented phantoms was specifically designed to support quality assurance efforts in evaluating diffuse optics instruments and methodologies across various institutions. We have characterized the printed phantoms and observed an average error between 12%-15% compared to our linear-mixing model predicted values. Biological sciences/Biological techniques/Imaging/Optical imaging Biological sciences/Biophysics/Computational biophysics Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Optical techniques/Imaging and sensing Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Optical techniques/Spectroscopy/Near infrared spectroscopy Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Optical techniques/Spectroscopy/Spectrophotometry Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Other photonics/Biophotonics Health sciences/Medical research/Translational research Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Visualization1SlicingToolPathing1.mp4 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 21 Mar, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 23 Jan, 2025 Reviews received at journal 27 Dec, 2024 Reviews received at journal 23 Dec, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 12 Dec, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Dec, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Dec, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 09 Dec, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 06 Dec, 2024 Editor invited by journal 03 Dec, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 03 Dec, 2024 First submitted to journal 21 Nov, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5500473","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":388814240,"identity":"c3c87d28-25a2-4a66-b43e-e9b7545329ac","order_by":0,"name":"Rahul Ragunathan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northeastern University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rahul","middleName":"","lastName":"Ragunathan","suffix":""},{"id":388814242,"identity":"28fd1b69-0c4e-4836-bb0c-9e00d148f35e","order_by":1,"name":"Miguel Mireles","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northeastern 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