MRI: Acquisition of an Aerosol Jet 3D Printing System for Flexible Electronic Circuits, Additive Manufacturing and Material Development

该项目获得了一个多功能Optomec Aerosol Jet 300 （AJ 300）打印系统，用于柔性电子电路和基于可打印纳米材料的化学/生物（CB）传感器，支持增材制造和材料开发的当前和未来计划。柔性电子和基于可印刷纳米材料的CB传感器在许多应用中都是非常需要的，特别是那些需要或可能受益于柔性基板的应用。除了低成本之外，柔性电子产品还提供了重量轻的薄膜电子电路，能够粘附在柔性和保形表面上。该技术有望给目前的电子产品领域带来革命性的变化，包括薄膜手机、可粘在窗户上的薄膜电视、具有各种传感、记忆和通信功能的功能性衣服或去除皮肤的堆叠器。然而，由于缺乏对柔性表面载流子传输特性的基本知识以及弯曲和应变对电路性能的影响，目前柔性电子的发展受到限制。此外，目前还没有有效的制造系统能够在高分辨率和多层对准精度的柔性基板上均匀输送材料。所要求的最先进的系统预计将提供促进跨学科研究和教育的新能力。由于柔性电子、纳米材料、高速率纳米制造、化学和生物传感器构成了该机构标志性研究项目的一部分，因此AJ 300打印系统的收购将极大地加强不同项目之间的合作，通过在尖端、跨学科的研究人员之间共享打印机。该系统将为柔性电子的教育提供前所未有的机会，并为少数民族服务的大学提供实践培训机会。拟议中的3D打印系统将成为招募和增加STEM学科招生的关键组成部分。通过将发现研究与教育和推广活动相结合，保留率很可能会提高。此外，该仪器能够开发和实施整合的课堂教学和研究。AJ 300打印机还为与其他大学和行业的技术开发和商业化转移提供了新的合作研究机会。该仪器是一种添加剂，高分辨率多层打印系统，能够在几乎任何平面基板或3D表面上均匀地输送流体和纳米材料，具有精确的多层对准精度。使pi能够对柔性电子的基本问题进行系统的研究，例如柔性表面上的载流子（电子和空穴）输运，以及由于能带结构、费米能级、载流子迁移率和阈值电压的变化而导致的弯曲和应变下电路性能的变化。通过系统研究获得的知识将为柔性电子的发展，特别是柔性电子的精确建模和设计奠定坚实的基础。AJ 300打印系统还为各种柔性电子和光电子器件（如共形天线、高度有序自组装聚合物/粘土纳米复合材料、太赫兹辐射和检测以及增材制造）提供了研究平台。它还可以作为可打印纳米材料开发和基于可打印纳米材料的CB传感器的测试打印系统，包括纳米材料工程、合成和工艺开发，以及大规模经济高效的CB传感器制造和集成。此外，该仪器将支持直接打印的缩放和集成研究，并研究液滴沉积，复合结构形成和设备性能之间的耦合。

This project, acquiring a versatile Optomec Aerosol Jet 300 (AJ 300) printing system for flexible electronic circuits and printable nanomaterials based chemical/biological (CB) sensors, supports current and future initiatives in additive manufacturing and material development. Flexible electronics and printable nanomaterials based CB sensors are highly desired in many applications, particularly those that require or may benefit from flexible substrates. In addition to low cost, flexible electronics offers light-weighted, thin-film electronics circuits capable of adhering on flexible and conformal surfaces. Such technology is expected to bring revolutionary changes to the current landscape of electronics, including thin-film cell phones, window-stickable thin-film TV, and functional clothes or removal skin stackers with various sensing, memory and communication capabilities. However, current development of flexible electronics is limited by the lack of fundamental knowledge of carrier transportation properties on flexible surfaces and the impact of bending and strain on circuit performance. In addition, there is no effective fabrication system capable of uniformly delivering materials on flexible substrates with high resolution and multi-layer alignment accuracy. The requested state-of-the-art system is expected to provide new capabilities to promote interdisciplinary research and education. The acquisition of the AJ 300 printing system should greatly enhance the collaborations of different projects through the sharing of the printer among cutting-edge, cross disciplinary researchers since flexible electronics, nano-materials, high rate nano-manufacturing, and chemical and biological sensors form part of the signature research programs of the institution. The system would provide an unprecedented opportunity for the education of flexible electronics and all the areas addressed with hands-on training opportunities in a minority-serving university. The proposed 3D printing system will serve as a key component to recruit and grow enrollment in STEM disciplines. Through the integration of discovery research into educational and outreach activities, the retention rate should most likely increase. Moreover, the instrument enables development and implementation of integrated classroom teaching and research. The AJ 300 printer also provides new opportunities for and collaborative research with other universities and industries for technology development and transfer for commercializationThe instrumentation, an additive, high-resolution multi-layer printing system capable of uniformly delivering fluid and nano-materials on almost any planar substrate or 3D surface with precise multi-layer alignment accuracy, enables the PIs to perform systematic research on fundamental issues of flexible electronics, such as carrier (electrons and holes) transport on flexible surfaces, and circuit performance variation under bending and strain due to changes in the band structure, Fermi-level, carrier mobility, and threshold voltage. The knowledge obtained through systematic research will form a solid base for the development of flexible electronics, particularly for accurate modeling and design of flexible electronics. The AJ 300 printing system also provides a research platform for various flexible electronics and optoelectronics devices such as conformal antenna, highly ordered self-assembling polymer/clay nanocomposite, Terahertz radiation and detection, and additive manufacturing. It can also function as a test printing system for the printable nanomaterials development and printable nanomaterials based CB sensors, including nanomaterial engineering, synthesis, and process development as well as large-scale cost-effective CB sensor fabrication and integration. Furthermore, the instrumentation would support research in scaling and integration of direct printing and investigate the couplings between the deposition of the droplets, formation of the composite structure, and device performance.