3D printing electronic components and circuits with conductive thermoplastic filament

Flowers, Patrick F.; Reyes, Christopher; Ye, Shengrong; Kim, Myung Joon; Wiley, Benjamin J.

doi:10.1016/j.addma.2017.10.002

Cited by 206 publications

(131 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Examples include antireflective structures [8][9][10], tunable prisms [11], Bragg fibers [12]. In addition, some new materials have been explored, for example, conductive filaments, used for printed electronic circuits [13]. The conductive properties of these materials are attributed to the mixture of a polymer host and either graphene (Black Magic 3D) or carbon black (Proto-pasta) [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, some new materials have been explored, for example, conductive filaments, used for printed electronic circuits [13]. The conductive properties of these materials are attributed to the mixture of a polymer host and either graphene (Black Magic 3D) or carbon black (Proto-pasta) [13]. Production of several 3D printed polarizers has been reported recently [14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design and fabrication of 3-D printed conductive polymer structures for THz polarization control

et al. 2019

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In this paper, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate the inverse polarization effect in 3D printed polarizers for the frequency range of 0.5 -2.7 THz. The polarizers consist of 0.3 mm printed strip lines of conductive polylactic acid (CPLA, Proto-Pasta) separated by a 0.3 mm air gap. We report the extinction ratio of five polarizers fabricated with different thicknesses between 1 mm and 5 mm. The experimental and numerical results show that the proposed structure acts as a broadband polarizer between the range of 0.3 THz to 2.7 THz, in which the inverse polarization effect is clearly seen for frequencies above 0.5 THz. In the inverse polarization effect, the transmission of the TE component exceeds that of the TM component, in contrast to the behavior of a typical wiregrid polarizer. Extinction ratios higher than 20 dB for the 5 mm device are reported within the inverse polarization region. This is the first report of the inverse polarization effect in 3D printed structures for the terahertz range.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and fabrication of 3-D printed conductive polymer structures for THz polarization control

et al. 2019

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“…The Electrifi material is a mechanically flexible compound with a volume resistivity of 0.006 · cm. 44 The dimensions of the conductive traces were 1 mm high × 2 mm wide. The PLA material was printed at 190…”

Section: B3124mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Flexible Conversion Circuit between a Flexible Photovoltaic and Supercapacitors for Powering Wearable Sensors

Thostenson

Kim

et al. 2018

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Integration of an organic photovoltaic (PV) with carbon-based supercapacitors (SCs) into a system for solar energy harvesting and storage is interesting for off-grid applications such as mobile electronics and sensor systems. Presented here is a conversion and control circuit (CC) on a flexible polyimide substrate in an integrated flexible energy harvesting and storage device compatible with roll-to-roll manufacturing (R2R). The CC is capable of PV max power-point tracking, DC-DC voltage boost of the PV output across a bank of four SCs, and charge balancing across the bank of SCs. This system is compared to a conventional direct connection between the PV and the SCs. More energy can be harvested from the PV and stored in the SC bank when using the CC to drive the PV at peak power, boost the output voltage, and balance it across serial connection of SCs. Finally, the CC, PV, and SCs are mounted to a 3D printed substrate and circuit which is used to power a wearable sensor. Due to these benefits and ability to be integrated with R2R, the presented CC provides a practical means of improving wearable solar energy harvesting and storage systems. In the flexible electronics literature, multiple publications demonstrated novel energy materials and devices, such as thin-film flexible photovoltaics (PVs)1-10 and carbon-based supercapacitors (SCs) [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] that are roll-to-roll (R2R) compatible. A few publications have further integrated a PV material with SCs to form an energy device capable of solar energy harvest and storage. 17,[19][20][21][22][23][24] Although simply connecting the devices without a conversion and control circuit (CC) that controls the flow of charge and the load impedance experienced by the PV can harvest and store energy, there are three problems that arise from this configuration: (i) the PV elements are operated inefficiently at suboptimal voltage-current conditions, far from the maximum-power point (MPP), (ii) undercharging the SCs due to low PV output voltage, and (iii) unbalanced charge storage across a bank of SCs with the risk of overcharging some while undercharging other SCs as well as a low usable combined capacity. These problems result in an inefficient and impractical energy device. In large PV systems, a CC typically mitigates these problems. However, such CCs use a discrete design with stiff bus bars or rigid circuit boards, which are incompatible with the flexible film design of the rest of the system. The lack of availability of a R2R-compatible CC has limited the realization of a R2R energy fabric for practical applications such as wearable sensors and the internet of things (IoT). 25 Many techniques have been developed to enable R2R-compatible packaging of CCs. Within the CC architecture, switching-mode DC-DC boost converters have been given considerable attention. For example, Z-folded flexible planar transformers have been developed that allow R2R production. 26 Planar geometries of flexible foils for use as low-profile inductors 27 and flip-chip flex-ci...

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“…Building on our work, a group at Southeast University in China subsequently demonstrated the use of a similar dual filament FFF 3D printing process to define regions for selective electroless plating through selective adhesion onto two different printable polymers and showed its use for 3D printed electronic packaging. A very low resistivity copperbased FFF filament developed at Duke University and commercialized under the name Electrifi [21] was recently demonstrated Creating 3D-printed parts with embedded circuitry is the next frontier in additive manufacturing, but printing of conductors with performance comparable to bulk metals such as copper is a difficult challenge. A more detailed survey of past work on electro-and electroless plating of 3D printed parts was also given in ref.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A very low resistivity copperbased FFF filament developed at Duke University and commercialized under the name Electrifi [21] was recently demonstrated Creating 3D-printed parts with embedded circuitry is the next frontier in additive manufacturing, but printing of conductors with performance comparable to bulk metals such as copper is a difficult challenge. A very low resistivity copperbased FFF filament developed at Duke University and commercialized under the name Electrifi [21] was recently demonstrated Creating 3D-printed parts with embedded circuitry is the next frontier in additive manufacturing, but printing of conductors with performance comparable to bulk metals such as copper is a difficult challenge.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective Electroplating for 3D‐Printed Electronics

Lazarus

Bedair

Hawasli

et al. 2019

Adv Materials Technologies

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In this paper, we demonstrate electroplating copper and nickel selectively onto traces printed in a highly conductive thermoplastic composite filament and use of the resulting bulk metal conductors for 3D printed electronics packaging. Electroless plating has long been used for metallization of polymer 3D printed parts [9,10] to obtain superior mechanical and electrical properties, but results in blanket deposition of metal over the entire part. Since most 3D printable plastics are difficult to directly electrolessly plate, metallization through this technique is typically a multistep process requiring roughening [11] and surface activation [12] for proper plating. Creating separate electrodes using electroless plating requires additional steps to define the conductors, for instance through laser ablation, [13] variable swelling, [14] or mechanical polishing. [15] In 2017, researchers demonstrated that conductive polymer composites can be used as a conductive seed layer for electroplating. [16] Based on this finding, we demonstrated selective electroplating of a 3D printed fused filament fabrication (FFF) part, combining conductive composite filament to define plated regions with a nonconductive plastic as a mechanical support. [17] Fused filament fabrication, the extrusion of melted thermoplastics to build a part, is a cheap and widely available 3D printing technology. [18] While successful, the composite we used was resistive relative to traditional electroplating seed layers, requiring electrical contact near the region being plated and therefore strongly limiting the complexity of the resulting parts and preventing use for electronics packaging. Building on our work, a group at Southeast University in China subsequently demonstrated the use of a similar dual filament FFF 3D printing process to define regions for selective electroless plating through selective adhesion onto two different printable polymers and showed its use for 3D printed electronic packaging. [19] Electroless plating is however significantly slower than electroplating, [20] limiting possible deposition thickness, and also unlike electroplating lacks the ability to selectively plate different thicknesses or materials on the same part. A more detailed survey of past work on electro-and electroless plating of 3D printed parts was also given in ref. [17].Here, we use a very low resistivity filament to plate centimeters from the contact point and demonstrate the ability to selectively plate complex 3D parts such as electronic packages and 3D printed circuit boards (PCBs). A very low resistivity copperbased FFF filament developed at Duke University and commercialized under the name Electrifi [21] was recently demonstrated Creating 3D-printed parts with embedded circuitry is the next frontier in additive manufacturing, but printing of conductors with performance comparable to bulk metals such as copper is a difficult challenge. A hybrid process based on 3D printing followed by electroplating on highly conductive thermoplastic filament is used to ma...

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3D printing electronic components and circuits with conductive thermoplastic filament

Cited by 206 publications

References 22 publications

Design and fabrication of 3-D printed conductive polymer structures for THz polarization control

Design and fabrication of 3-D printed conductive polymer structures for THz polarization control

Integrated Flexible Conversion Circuit between a Flexible Photovoltaic and Supercapacitors for Powering Wearable Sensors

Selective Electroplating for 3D‐Printed Electronics

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