Manufacturing and scale-up roadmap for metamaterials

Metamaterials provide exceptional properties arising from their well-defined engineered structures in which periodic features ranging from the nanoscale to the macroscale are manufactured to yield the desired characteristics. Recent advances in manufacturing techniques have dramatically expanded the design space and potential applications of metamaterials. Progress in high-resolution additive processes, scalable subtractive techniques, and emerging hybrid and formative approaches has enabled architectures that were previously difficult to realise at meaningful scale. Although challenges remain for scaling production, recent advances are moving metamaterials beyond laboratory-scale demonstrators towards more manufacturable platforms. These developments suggest emerging – though still early – pathways for broader technological deployment, enabling new possibilities for multifunctional devices, large-area metasurfaces, and mechanically robust architected materials. This roadmap explores the current-state-of-the art manufacturing techniques for metamaterials, highlighting key challenges and opportunities in scaling-up production and commercialisation, and outlines potential strategies for overcoming the barriers that currently limit large-scale implementation.