The production of electronic circuits and devices is limited by current manufacturing methods that limit both the form and potentially the performance of these systems. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a technology that has been shown to provide cross sectoral manufacturing industries with significant geometrical freedom. A research domain known as Multi-Functional Additive Manufacturing (MFAM) in its infancy looks to couple the positive attributes of AM with application in the electronics sector could have a significant impact on the development of new products, however there are significant hurdles to overcome. This paper reports on the single step MFAM of three dimensional (3D) electronic circuitry within a polymeric structure using a combination of conductive and non-conductive materials within a single material jetting based AM system. The basis of this breakthrough is a study of the optical absorption regions of a silver nanoparticle (AgNP) conductive ink which lead to a novel method to rapidly process and sinter silver nanoparticle inks in ambient conditions using simple UV radiation contemporaneously with UV-curing of deposited polymeric structures
