Advancing flexible electronics and additive manufacturing

Abstract

There is high interest in the synergism of thin-film and flexible electronics with additive manufacturing (AM). This review primarily focuses on the prospective developments in convergence with flexible electronics manufacturing technologies. Specifically, this paper covers the latest 3D printing and hybrid manufacturing technologies, the utility of specific types of materials, their functionalization and characterization, post-processing and testing strategies toward fabricating robust and application-specific flexible electronics. Besides exploring the advances in this area of research – it also highlights the limitations and gaps that have been observed in the previous years that will challenge and offer opportunities for advancing research and development. Lastly, the future of 3D-printed flexible electronics is discussed in the aspects of customizability, scalability, and its game-changing and state-of-the-art potential for intelligent sensing, instrumentation, and wearables for various medical, engineering, and industrial applications.

3D-Printed Ergonomic Tool Handles

“…The dimensions were; hand length, hand breadth, which indicated how long the tool handle should be, and major and minor grip diameter, which could be measured only when the hand was on a grip gesture. The grip gesture that the proponents and the participants followed were based on the biodynamic hand coordinate system defined in ISO 8727 [5]. Based on the data gathered (see Table 1), the average hand length of the Filipinos is 175.23 mm, the hand breadth (the width where the fingers join the palms) is 72.92 mm, and the major and minor grip breadth is 34.43 to 38.91 mm.…”

“…So, in this study, the application of the Additive Manufacturing process has been adapted in making a 3Dprinted tool handle to customize further the designs and the materials in constructing a new tool handle. Additive Manufacturing (AM) or 3D Printing is now widely used in different applications such as electronics, robotics, construction, automotive, agriculture, medicine, aerospace, desalination, education, satellites, oil & gas, and many others [5]- [14]. 3D printing is the process of creating three-dimensional objects through a layering method from a 3D computer-aided design model.…”

Piezoresistive behavior of DLP 3D printed CNT/polymer nanocomposites under monotonic and cyclic loading

“…AM technology, also known as 3D printing, enables the fabrication of 3D objects with complex geometries in a single step based on computer-aided design (CAD) models [2]. Since 3D printing is a relatively simple and cost-effective method to create materials with complex architecture and tunable mechanical/functional attributes, it has been used for a wide range of emerging applications, including scaffolds for tissue engineering [5,6], structural electronics [7], wearable devices [8], and chemical sensing [9].…”

“…Fig 8. Uniaxial compressive stress vs. strain response of a DLP-enabled MWCNT/polymer gyroid lattice (30% relative density) along with the measured piezoresistive response; the images show photographs of the specimen recorded during the test at various strain levels…”

Applications of Additive Manufacturing in Architecture Study 3: Assessment of the Viability of using 3d printing for the Design and Prototyping of Historical Artifacts as Replicas

“…Moreover, AM provides solutions where complex designs are required, with short lead time and small lot sizes. AM is now being seriously considered to produce materials for several applications, namely: construction, apparel, agriculture, desalination, education, medicine, electronics, automotive, robots, military, oceanography, aerospace, satellites, oil & gas, architectural design, and many more [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”