Enhanced stretchable electronics made by fused-filament fabrication

Abstract

3D printing is widely used for manufacturing complex non-functional parts, and recently, the fabrication of electronics has also attracted research attention. The commercialized process of fused-filament fabrication (FFF), which is still evolving,has been used in the preparation of basic electronic conductors and sensors but only a few studies of more complex structures with integrated circuits and passive components have been reported. Notably, the usage of FFF in wearable stretchable electronics has not been studied previously. We demonstrate that the combination of FFF printing and commonly used stretchable electronics materials and methods enables new wearable stretchable electronics. In this study, thermoplastics were extruded directly onto a stretchable substrate and their adhesion was measured using T-peel tests. The test results were further used in the fabrication of supports for meander-shaped screen-printed interconnects. The elongation of the interconnects with the supports were studied by tensile tests with simultaneous measurements of the electrical conductivity. The results were good, and the adhesion exceeded the constitution of the substrate when the filament and the substrate were of the same material type. The average bond strength was ∼2 N mm−1. Support structures placed close to the meander-shaped interconnects changed the interconnects’ deformation under elongation. The average maximum elongation of the interconnects was improved by ∼27% when the supports directed stresses away from the interconnects’ weak areas. Conversely, the results were ∼21% lower when the supports directed stresses towards the weak areas. This study demonstrates that it is possible to use direct 3D printing onto highly stretchable substrates. Currently, commercial FFF materials and methods can be used to manufacture supports, frames and other non-functional parts on wearable electronics substrates in a single process step. We believe that in the future, FFF will become a valuable tool in the manufacture of inexpensive and reliable wearable electronics.

Electromechanical Properties of 3D-Printed Stretchable Carbon Fiber Composites

“…A TPU filament was used as a 3D-printed backbone for the fabricated structure. TPU is a widely used material in 3D printing and stretchable electronics because of its high deformability and stability [ 2 , 3 , 7 ]. For example, TPU-based stretchable films have also been used in wearable and printed electronics in combination with screen-printable conductive silver inks.…”

“…FFF can also be adopted in the textile field by printing plastics directly on textile substrates [ 5 ] or by printing the whole textile composition [ 6 ]. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that FFF with deformable plastics and substrates can be used in manufacturing stretchable electronics, which can be further laminated on textiles for wearable electronics [ 7 ].…”

Mechanical properties of structured copper and printed silver hybrid stretchable electronic systems

“…Screen-printing, inkjet printing, fused filament fabrication (FFF), and other additive manufacturing methods are used to fabricate deformable electronics [5,[10][11][12]. Inkjet printing is a widely used printing method for on-skin and wearable sensors and actuators [5,13].…”

“…Besides other additive manufacturing methods, screen-printing is especially used in the fabrication of inherently deformable electronics for wearable applications [3,7,11,15]. In this case, the ink is squeezed through a screen onto a substrate, which enables the use of large conductive fillers and high polymer binder content in the inks [16].…”

“…In this case, the ink is squeezed through a screen onto a substrate, which enables the use of large conductive fillers and high polymer binder content in the inks [16]. By using local stiffeners, the deformations in critical areas of the screen-printed circuitry can be engineered so that the overall system allows a higher stretchability [11].…”