Mar.7, 2014
Industrial 3D printer manufacturer, Optomec was awarded a new U.S. patent, titled Miniature Aerosol Jet and Aerosol Jet Array, patent # 8,640,975. The patented miniaturized Aerosol Jet print head geometry is significantly smaller, lighter weight and lower cost than preceding generations.
Aerosol Jet printing is an additive manufacturing solution that reduces the overall size of electronic systems by utilizing aerodynamic focusing to precisely deposit nanomaterials to produce fine feature circuitry and embedded components without the use of masks or patterns. The resulting functional electronics can have line widths and pattern features ranging from 10's of microns to centimeters.
This video from the Rochester Institute of Technology's Brinkman Lab shows Optomec's Aerosol Jet process printing copper nanoink from Intrinsiq materials on a paper substrate. The lines are approximately 20 microns wide and 2 microns thick. The atomized ink comes out of the ceramic nozzle, and the "spoon" simply catches the aerosol stream when you hop from the end of one line to the start of the next.
This new design is enabling for a range of production applications, such as printing 3D conformal electronics onto large structures in location, and printing electronics into hard to reach places such as recesses and cavities. The patent also includes provisions for multiplexing the miniaturized print head geometry within linear arrays or custom arrangements for high-volume production scale-up.
"The miniaturized Aerosol Jet print head can be used for many applications." says Dr. Mike Renn, Optomec Chief Technology Officer. As a linear array using a single material, it is a means for increasing throughput with simple parallel processing for high volume applications, such as printed touch screen displays. However, the array doesn't have to be linear; custom placement of multiple print heads for a specific application is also an option. Looking into the future, Aerosol Jet could print different materials from each miniaturized print head in the array. In this case, Aerosol Jet Printers could produce complex multi-material, multi-layered devices such as transistors, capacitors, sensors and resistors, on a single system."
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
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It leaves the door ajar for a revolution in home micro electronics like never before. Can you imagine relatively inexpensive, 1off complex circuits printed in just a few minutes! The realm for innovation in layout and design has just taken a flying leap.
KnightFire wrote at 3/9/2014 5:04:02 AM:
I watched the video, and half way through I actually said "Holely 5#17" - and that's swearing for me. This is really going to be incredible if they can lay down (and not just mask) traces too.
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