Hybrid 3D Printing of Soft Electronics

Abstract

Hybrid 3D printing is a new method for producing soft electronics that combines direct ink writing of conductive and dielectric elastomeric materials with automated pick-and-place of surface mount electronic components within an integrated additive manufacturing platform. Using this approach, insulating matrix and conductive electrode inks are directly printed in specific layouts. Passive and active electrical components are then integrated to produce the desired electronic circuitry by using an empty nozzle (in vacuum-on mode) to pick up individual components, place them onto the substrate, and then deposit them (in vacuum-off mode) in the desired location. The components are then interconnected via printed conductive traces to yield soft electronic devices that may find potential application in wearable electronics, soft robotics, and biomedical devices.

Enabling and Localizing Omnidirectional Nonlinear Deformation in Liquid Crystalline Elastomers

“…[28] The spatially patterned alignment of the LCE substrate minimizes the strain at the LED and printed wire interface while allowing the device to stretch (Figure 5a). Here, we illustrate the functional benefits of localizing nonlinear elastic deformation of LCEs to produce rugged, flexible devices.…”

High‐Resolution 3D Printing of Freeform, Transparent Displays in Ambient Air

“…In addition, the photolithography is only for 2D structures on a planar surface. For example, printing technologies, such as direct ink writing, [10][11][12][13][14] digital light processing (DLP), selective laser sintering (SLS), [15] fused deposition modeling (FDM), [16] and inkjet printing, [17] can be adapted to print 3D structures for a wide range of applications including electronic circuits, [18] batteries, [19] photonic structures, and optoelectronic devices. Thus, the optoelectronic devices with 3D structures need to be fabricated via stacks of 2D device layers, in which interconnects between layers are achieved using wire-bonding or a metal vial, [4] but the use of these layerby-layer stacking approaches can limit the geometries of devices that have more complex 3D shapes.…”

Highly Stretchable Bilayer Lattice Structures That Elongate via In‐Plane Deformation

“…[24][25][26][27][28][29] Aided with the 3D printing methods, engineers have recently constructed diverse wearable batteries and flexible electronic devices in a fast and scalable manner. [25,[30][31][32][33] These efforts on imparting stretchability to electronic devices and batteries via 3D printing, however, rely on either inherently soft materials such as shape memory polymers and elastomers, [25,34] or brittle materials in the form of serpentine which usually requires out-of-plane space to accommodate the elongation and thus sacrifices flat and smooth surfaces. [35][36][37] To simultaneously attain smoothness and enhanced stretchability for stretchable structures with brittle constituting materials, new structure designs which can elongate significantly via in-plane motion is highly desirable, especially for flexible electronic devices that require flat and smooth surfaces such as transparent electrodes.…”