3D-Inkjet Printing of Flexible and Stretchable Electronics

Inkjet printing of conductive tracks on flexible and stretchable materials have gained considerable interest in recent years. Conductive inks including inks with silver nanoparticles, carbon based inks, inks containing poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) doped with polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSS) are being researched widely to obtain a printed electronic patterns. In this study, we present drop-on-demand inkjet printing of conductive silver and PEDOT:PSS on a flexible and stretchable substrate. Process conditions for the inkjet printing of silver nano-particles and PEDOT:PSS were optimised and simple geometrical patterns (straight line and sinewave tracks) were printed. Surface profile, surface morphology and electrical resistance of the printed patterns were examined. The printed silver patterns were observed to be highly conductive; however when stretched, the patterns did not conduct due to the origination of cracks. The measured conductivity for the PEDOT:PSS patterns was significantly lower than the silver patterns; however, they remained conductive when stretched for up to 3 mm. When flexed, PEDOT:PSS remained conductive for a lower radius of curvature (10 mm) than the silver. Among the printed patterns, the sinewave pattern was observed to be superior for flexible electronics application.Mechanical Engineerin

Optimisation of substrate angles for multi-material and multi-functional inkjet printing

Three dimensional inkjet printing of multiple materials for electronics applications are challenging due to the limited material availability, inconsistencies in layer thickness between dissimilar materials and the need to expose the printed tracks of metal nanoparticles to temperature above 100 °C for sintering. It is envisaged that instead of printing a dielectric and a conductive material on the same plane, by printing conductive tracks on an angled dielectric surface, the required number of silver layers and consequently, the exposure of the polymer to high temperature and the build time of the component can be significantly reduced. Conductive tracks printed with a fixed print height (FH) showed significantly better resolution for all angles than the fixed slope (FS) sample where the print height varied to maintain the slope length. The electrical resistance of the tracks remained under 10Ω up to 60° for FH; whereas for the FS samples, the resistance remained under 10Ω for samples up to 45°. Thus by fixing the print height to 4 mm, precise tracks with low resistance can be printed at substrate angles up to 60°. By adopting this approach, the build height “Z” can be quickly attained with less exposure of the polymer to high temperature

Combined inkjet printing and infrared sintering of silver nanoparticles using a swathe-by-swathe and layer-by-layer approach for 3-dimensional structures

Despite the advancement of additive manufacturing (AM)/3-dimensional (3D) printing, single-step fabrication of multifunctional parts using AM is limited. With the view of enabling multifunctional AM (MFAM), in this study, sintering of metal nanoparticles was performed to obtain conductivity for continuous line inkjet printing of electronics. This was achieved using a bespoke three dimensional (3D) inkjet-printing machine, JETx®, capable of printing a range of materials and utilizing different post processing procedures to print multi-layered 3D structures in a single manufacturing step. Multiple layers of silver were printed from an ink containing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and infra-red sintered using a swathe-by-swathe (SS) and layer-by-layer sintering (LS) regime. The differences in the heat profile for the SS and LS was observed to influence the coalescence of the AgNPs. Void percentage of both SS and LS samples was higher towards the top layer than the bottom layer due to relatively less IR exposure in the top than the bottom. The results depicted a homogeneous microstructure for LS of AgNPs and showed less deformation compared to the SS. Electrical resistivity of the LS tracks (13.6 ± 1μΩ cm) was lower than the SS tracks (22.5 ± 1 μΩ cm). This study recommends the use of LS method to sinter the AgNPs to obtain a conductive track in 25% less time than SS method for MFAM

Reduced mechanical oscillations using the MAGLEV concept in vertical axis wind turbine

Due to its low power design applications, the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine is more commonly employed for the standalone applications. The power generating capability in wind turbines is influenced by the mechanical dimensions of the blade including the shape of the blade and the angle of attack. The appropriate design of the blade shape and position tends to improvise the efficiency even at low wind speed. Initially the shape of the airfoil is designed and analyses and the position for a five blade structure is investigated. The degree of impact at angle of 30° is found to have the highest lift coefficient for the chosen airfoil structure. The use of MAGLEV concept in the VAWT reduces the vibration by 37.5%. Experimental results are presented with and without MAGLEV imported to the VAWT design. Also it is measured that the power generated with maglev system is increase by 12 % compare to the normal wind turbine

multifunctional bioinstructive 3d architectures to modulate cellular behavior

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3D inkjet printing of conductive structures using in-situ IR sintering

In this study we investigate the inkjet printing of a silver nanoparticle ink and the optimization of IR sintering conditions to form 3D inkjet-printed conductive structures. The understanding of the interaction between the silver layers and the sintering conditions are key elements to successfully build conductive tracks in 3D. The drop size of conductive ink on glass substrates as well as on sintered conductive film was measured to optimize the printing resolution. The resistivity of the sintered deposition was studied in a planar X-Y direction as well as in a vertical Z direction to analyze the effects of stacking hundreds of silver layers in different deposition orientations. Using the results of the optimized printing and sintering conditions, conductive tracks were demonstrated forming simple 3D inkjet-printed structures powering electronic components

Investigating the melt pool properties and thermal effects of multi-laser diode area melting

Diode area melting (DAM) is a new additive manufacturing process that utilises customised architectural arrays of low-power laser diode emitters for high-speed parallel processing of metallic feedstock. The laser diodes operate at shorter laser wavelengths (808 nm) than conventional SLM fibre lasers (1064 nm) theoretically enabling more efficient energy absorption for specific materials. This investigation presents the first work investigating the melt pool properties and thermal effects of the multi-laser DAM process, modelling generated melt pools the unique thermal profiles created along a powder bed during processing. Using this approach process, optimisation can be improved by analysing this thermal temperature distribution, targeting processing conditions that induce full melting for variable powder layer thicknesses. In this work, the developed thermal model simulates the DAM processing of 316L stainless steel and is validated with experimental trials. The simulation indicates that multi-laser DAM methodology can reduce residual stress formation compared to the single point laser scanning methods used during selective laser melting

Remotely Controlled in Situ Growth of Silver Microwires Forming Bioelectronic Interfaces

There is a pressing need to advance our ability to construct three-dimensional (3D) functional bioelectronic interfaces. Additionally, to ease the transition to building cellular electronic systems, a remote approach to merge electrical components with biology is desirable. By combining 3D digital inkjet printing with bipolar electrochemistry, we remotely control and fabricate conductive wires, forming a first of its kind contactless bionic manufacturing procedure. It enables controlled fabrication of conductive wires in a three-dimensional configuration. Moreover, we demonstrate that this technology could be used to grow and interface conductive conduits in situ with mammalian cells, offering a new strategy to engineering bioelectronic interfaces. This represents a step change in the production of functional complex circuitry and considerably increases the manufacturing capabilities of merging cells with electronics. This approach provides a platform to construct bioelectronics in situ offering a potential paradigm shift in the methods for building bioelectronics with potential applications in biosensing and bioelectronic medicine