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What are 3D Printed Electronics? Let us tell you.

Design

The ability to 3D print electronics is making waves in an industry plagued by long stints of R&D and a never ending cycle of prototypes and new releases.

But what exactly does this process entail? And how, as a designer, architect, or artist, can it help you? Is it sustainable? What are the dangers? And what should you know about it?

This guide is a useful starting point for you to find out…

3D Printing objects with electronic functionality is a relatively new concept.

It involves the use of material jetting technology, which is used to jet conductive and insulating inks onto the printing surface.

These inks are applied in lines as thin as a few microns before UV light is used to solidify the inks. 

The use of material jetting facilitates multi-material 3D printing, which is particularly useful for the electronics industry.

This means that the different elements necessary in electronics, such as functional circuitry and enclosures, can be manufactured in a single print run.

Where systems could typically use just one material in the 3D printing process, recent advancements have enabled the involvement of multiple materials.

This allows manufacturers to merge conductive materials with non-conductive materials.

The thermoplastics used in the 3D printing process are often made with copper, carbon and graphene.

Meanwhile, proprietary conductive and dielectric inks are used simultaneously to build functional circuits and antennas. This expands the range of functions in 3D printed electronics.

Because the process combines multiple materials into the same 3D object it also requires a solvent to ensure their compatibility. The particular solvent used is known as an orthogonal solvent, which is specifically designed not to cause damage to the different components. 

With 3D printing electronics, it is possible to make various types of boards that can be programmed and connected to prototypes.

A very wide range of inks can be utilized enabling a full range of printed electronics functionality: conductors, semiconductors, dielectrics, resistors and more.

The process can be used to manufacture electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, antennas, sensors, and thin film transistors. 

Using the 3D printing process, it is also possible to rapidly 3D print fully functional electronic circuits that contain electrically-conductive metallic inks and insulating polymeric inks, which could be useful for medical devices, radio frequency shielding surfaces and novel structures for harvesting solar energy.

Today, however, it’s main applications include printing electronics for use in prototypes for upcoming products, prosthetics and more complexly shaped electronic products.

While several methods exist for 3D printing electronic components, they typically mirror the various steps utilised in regular 3D printing. The main difference is the use of a dual-material fused filament process with conductive thermoplastic filaments. 

As with all 3D printing, a digital CAD model of the desired part is designed, which serves as the printer’s instruction model.

When the printing process begins, a trace or “fingerprint” is created, and then the requisite materials needed for that specific part are added in layers.

Specialised machinery is required which integrates a precise inkjet deposition printer with dedicated nano-inks and software capable of printing electronic circuits such as printed circuit boards (PCBs), antennas, capacitors and sensors.

Due to the complexity of the process, it is not possible to replicate it at home unless you have the capability of manufacturing your own 3D printer.

With the relevant machinery, it is possible to 3D print electronics at home.  

Find out more about manufacturing processes, don’t miss What is Explosive Forming? Let us tell you…

At the core of every electronic device is a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) which is difficult to produce. Luckily, with the advent of 3D printing, manufacturing these circuit boards is less challenging. 

The benefits of 3D printing electronics range from faster time-to-market, greater freedom of design and customisation.

This is because with the advent of 3D printing electronics manufacturers can create prototypes of circuits and circuit birds in-house, reducing procurement expenses and eliminating concerns about IP infringement.

3D printing also opens up opportunities to design complex shapes and components. For example, multilayer circuits can now be 3D printed on non-flat, flexible surfaces, which would not be possible with traditional manufacturing techniques.

Components can also be printed onto 3D surfaces eliminating the need for a separate substrate and reducing the size, thickness and weight of the end product.

However, there are several limitations when it comes to 3D printing electronics, not only because it is limited in the types of parts it can produce.

Whilst the recyclability of 3D printed electronics is an area being explored by various researchers, it remains a con due to what is currently possible. 

Another downside to 3D printed electronics, and in fact, all 3D printed products is their structural integrity.

Whilst printed layers adhere together in some cases, and under certain stresses or conditions, they can delaminate.

Another major downside to 3D printing as a whole is its increasing popularity and accessibility. On one hand, it democratises the manufacturing processes but it also makes it easier to fake and counterfeit products.

Whilst 3D printing electronics can minimise the manufacturing footprint by localising production, the difficulty in recycling the various components means it can’t be considered a sustainable process.  

There are several resources that are useful when it comes to building your knowledge around 3D printed electronics.

If you want to learn more check these out:

• A visual demonstration of the 3D printing process used to manufacture electronics.
• An explanation of the various capabilities of 3D printing electronics.
• A paper detailing the evolution of 3D printing electronics.
• A breakdown of the various benefits and current systems employed when 3D printing electronics 
• A detailed research into the future of 3D printing electronics and its benefits when used for prototyping.

Fascinated by 3d printing? Don’t miss 3D printing ceramics: Interview with Hilda Nilsson.

Printed electronics - foreign experience. DragonFly Multilayer PCB 3D Printer

The market for 3D printing of body parts is rapidly moving from product prototyping to part production. Equipment and technologies for printed electronics began to develop not so long ago compared to conventional 3D printers, but they already have a number of significant achievements.

A few years ago, the first 3D printer manufactured by NanoDimension, Israel, appeared on the market, which made it possible to print a multilayer printed circuit board and revolutionized the field of printed circuit board prototyping (Fig. 1). Moreover, it turned out that its capabilities are much wider than the manufacturer intended, and users were able to solve many other problems with it. The article discusses the new capabilities of this equipment and presents foreign experience in its operation.

Let's take a quick look at the main features of the hardware. The DragonFly 3D printer prints with two materials: dielectric and conductive paste. In fact, it allows you to print the entire board from scratch, including all layers, microvias from any to any layer, masking, marking (Fig. 2). No pre- and post-operations are required. Previously, to prototype boards, you needed a small PCB shop with chemical, mechanical, photochemical and other operations, which needed water supply, exhaust, drains and compressed air. Instead, you can now put one 3D printer in the designer's office (Figure 3), start printing in the evening and in the morning already have a finished PCB sample with impressive characteristics (57 layers, conductor/gap: 110/110 µm, microvia diameter 200 µm and etc.).

The technology is relevant:

• For companies that want to keep design and technological solutions secret when developing and prototyping products.
• For technology parks and universities that are engaged in research activities.
• For enterprises that want to speed up the prototyping process and make it more efficient to get products that have a serious competitive advantage in the market.
• For developers of various non-standard micromechanical products with an electrical circuit.

The technology allows you to perform standard PCB prototyping tasks, but it also has a number of capabilities that are superior to traditional technology (Table 1).

Table 1. Applications of DragonFly

*NanoDimension provides a base of standard capacitors of various capacities by creating a multi-layer structure with up to 57 layers.

**Example: previously it was required to order 3 parts (PC, antenna, battery holder) and assemble them. During operation, there were problems with the reliability of the connection of parts, and the DragonFly 3D printer allows you to print and integrate all three functions in one part in one go, increasing the reliability of the product.

Experience of foreign users

HARRIS COOPERATION (USA)

Antennas printed on a printer are close in their characteristics to antennas manufactured using traditional technology, as evidenced by the graphs of loss and noise versus frequency shown in Figure 4.

A 3D printer, unlike traditional technology, where the slightest inaccuracies in the manufacturing process change the parameters of the antenna, has a higher repeatability in manufacturing. That is why 3D printed antennas (Figure 5) designed to operate at 5.2 GHz and an RF amplifier operating up to 6 GHz (designed by Harris) were chosen for organizing the flight to the ISS.

HENSOLDT (FORMER AIRBUS / EADS) (Germany)

Hensoldt develops responsible products. The introduction of the DragonFly 3D printer (Fig. 6) made it possible to significantly speed up the process of obtaining prototypes compared to ordering boards from a third-party manufacturer.

HENSOLDT Director Thomas Müller said: “Sensors for special applications require reliability and performance much higher than those for consumer applications. The ability to quickly prototype in multiple iterations gives us a competitive edge when designing these products.”

In the photographs of Figure 7, you can see the same board made in the traditional way and on a 3D printer.

The DragonFly 3D printer has expanded the range of Hensoldt's capabilities, so now the company prints not only boards, but also non-standard products that the market needs, for example, waveguides (Fig. 8):

PHYTEC (Germany)

PHYTEC is a manufacturer of products based on microprocessors. In some of its boards, it uses a non-standard solution: one or more chips are installed on a board made on a DragonFly printer, and then the board with the chip is soldered to the main board at a temperature of 240 ° C. We do not know exactly the reasons for this course of action, but the following options are possible:

• know-how retention in the manufacture of components through cooperation;
• completion of electrical circuits of products.

ITALIAN INSTIT UTE OF TEC HNOLOGY IIT (Italy)

A study by a leading biological institute that deals with wearable electronics aims to read the parameters of the human body. One of the difficult tasks is the sensor packaging (Fig. 10). The old construct did not ensure the reliability of the electrical connection - cracks formed on the sensor, leading to the failure of the product during operation. Printing the case on a 3D printer made it possible to avoid casting processes, reduce the influence of the human factor in the manufacture of the sensor, eliminate wires, soldering and installing a connector.

Professor Massimo De Vittorio: “The DragonFly system is suitable for fast and low cost prototyping. Its capabilities make the printer an ideal choice for our team and allow us to achieve the best results - fast development and printing of complex forms that are not possible with traditional technology.

A distinctive feature of the company's activities is a three-stage work process: printing the base, installing the sensor, printing the upper part of the mount along with electrical switching. In fact, this is the printing of a board with a component (sensor) built into it, which has significantly increased the reliability of the product.

REHAU (Germany)

REHAU is a manufacturer of consumer products. Dr. Ansgar Niehoff, Head of Department at REHAU: “We want to make our products smarter and thus add value to our customers by seamlessly integrating electronics into products. With the help of this technology, prototypes can be made within days without the help of third-party manufacturers, and the company saves time and effort. 3D printing is especially interesting in products where there is little space for top-mounted components. Creating smart products is no longer the future, but the present. REHAU develops smart home and IoT products, and NanoDimension provides critical technologies to accelerate new product time to market” (Figure 11).

CADLOG (Italy)

CADLOG is one of the leading software and electronics developers. She recently opened a prototyping center in Italy, where there is a DragonFly installation. Video about the center: https://youtu.be/HtZnLUJUyWs.

Despite the recent opening of the center, DragonFly already plays a significant role in the work of CADLOG.

Conclusion

The promise of this technology is huge, and those companies that start using the DragonFly 3D printer now will be one step ahead of the rest. Enterprises have already appeared in Russia that have become pioneers of this technology.

New opportunities for design, prototyping and manufacturing will allow our designers to more fully develop their talents and capabilities and create unique consumer products for society.

Koreans have created a wearable 3D printer for printing electronics on the skin

Korean engineers have created a small wearable 3D printer for printing flexible electronics on the skin. It is attached to the arm, back or any desired part of the body and prints conductive electronic tracks on it. They can be used to track body movements, touch, or other purposes. The developers plan to talk in detail about the printer at the fall UIST 2020 conference, but for now, they have published a video with examples of its operation and a brief description.

In the field of wearable electronics, there is a concept according to which electronics should be directly integrated with the body: sticking sensors on the skin or, in the long term, implanting electrodes. There are also separate studies in which simple electronic components, for example, stretch or pressure sensors, are offered to be printed directly on the skin using a 3D printer. This is a potentially convenient method, but since printing takes some time, and the person moves during this time, the printing is inaccurate. In 2018, American engineers solved this problem technologically: they supplemented the printer with cameras that track hand movements and compensate for it by moving the print head.

A group of engineers from the Korea Institute of Advanced Technology led by Andrea Bianchi took a different, simpler approach in their new development. They created a compact printer that can be mounted directly above the print site on the body so that the print quality is almost independent of human movements.

The printer has a simple design. It consists of a frame that is placed on the skin and pressed tightly against the body with two straps, and above the frame there is a mechanism that moves the print head in two directions. The print head itself is also simple: it is a syringe with a conductive flexible material, and a linear motor on top that squeezes the substance out of the syringe.

Before printing, the layout of the printed tracks can be changed in the program. Also, before starting the process, the printer calibrates, lowering the head to the level of the skin in different places in order to understand its relief. Immediately before printing, an insulating transparent layer must be smeared onto the skin, after which the printer will draw tracks on it in a few minutes, which can then be connected to electrodes leading to the readout electronics. In addition, while the print substance is still wet, small rigid components, such as an LED, can be inserted into it.

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