Manufacturing USA: Precision Alignment of Roll-to-Roll Printing of Flexible Paper Electronics Through Modeling and Virtual Sensor-based Control

对能够精确、高速印刷电子产品的先进制造技术的需求正在增加。卷对卷印刷技术可以连续地将印刷的电子图案转移到柔性基板上，对于柔性电子设备的大批量生产非常有前途。然而，有一个重大的挑战需要克服，那就是多层印刷电子具有非常严格的对准公差要求，并且没有可靠的工具可用于实时监测和控制覆盖配准精度。为了克服这一挑战，该奖项利用建模和基于虚拟传感器的控制开发了卷对卷印刷的精确对准。另一个挑战是大量使用塑料作为基材，塑料是由石油基材料制成的，因此是不可生物降解的，这使得它们的生产和处理对环境有害。为了应对这些挑战，该奖项致力于将纸质基材作为可回收和环保的柔性电子产品塑料替代品。这个跨学科项目超越了几个重要领域的界限，包括先进材料工程、网络制造和数据分析。从这个项目中获得的知识有助于催化纳米和微增材打印的新技术，这些技术将进入美国制造研究所的创新管道。这项研究的成果有利于下一代生态友好型柔性电子产品，例如用于患者护理的更环保的一次性传感器或低成本嵌入式家用电子产品。教育活动促进跨学科顶点项目和增加学生？有制造研究方面的实际学习经验。这支持了全国范围内培养下一代制造工程师的努力。这个项目的目标是促进对卷对卷（R2R）印刷的基本理解。研究包括对空间变异产生及其传播积累机制的理解。空间误差传播的知识被用于开发虚拟传感，以实现对多层微结构的创建、集成和操作的前所未有的控制，这些微结构构成了印刷纸电子学的基础。此外，本项目在闭环方法中研究材料-过程-控制-设备性能关系。这项研究加速了智能R2R系统的发展，该系统具有高可追溯性、可预测性和可控性，可用于柔性纸电子产品的高分辨率增材打印，使传感、生物医学设备和可再生能源等一系列技术成为可能。电子产品在纸上的R2R打印技术的发展开创了一个环保、可弯曲的纸设备的新时代，比如价格一次性的水质传感器。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Demand is increasing for advanced manufacturing technologies that can print electronics accurately and at high speed. Roll-to-Roll printing techniques that can continuously transfer a printed electronic pattern onto a flexible substrate are very promising for high-volume production of flexible electronic devices. However, there is a significant challenge to overcome, which is that multilayer printed electronics have very tight alignment tolerance requirements, and there are no reliable tools available to monitor and control the overlay registration accuracy in real-time. To overcome this challenge, this award develops precision alignment of roll-to-roll printing using modeling and virtual sensor-based control. Another challenge is the overwhelming use of plastic as the substrate, which are manufactured from petroleum-based materials and therefore are not biodegradable, making them environmentally hazardous to produce and dispose. To address these challenges, this award pursues paper substrates as recyclable and environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic for flexible electronics. This interdisciplinary project transcends the boundaries of several important fields, including advanced materials engineering, cyber-manufacturing and data analytics. The knowledge attained from this project helps catalyze new technologies in nano and micro additive printing that feed into the innovation pipelines of the Manufacturing USA Institutes. The outcomes of this research benefit next-generation ecologically-friendly flexible electronics, such as, greener disposable sensors for patient care or lower-cost embedded home electronics. Educational activities promote interdisciplinary capstone projects and increase students? hands-on learning experience in manufacturing research. This supports the nationwide effort in educating the next generation manufacturing engineers.The goal of this project is to advance the fundamental understanding of roll-to-roll (R2R) printing of functional paper electronics. The study involves understanding the mechanism for spatial variation generation and its propagation and accumulation. The knowledge on spatial error propagation is used to develop virtual sensing to achieve unprecedented control in the creation, integration and manipulation of multilayer microstructures that form the foundation of printed paper electronics. Furthermore, this project studies materials-process-control-device performance relationships in a closed loop approach. This research expedites intelligent R2R systems with high traceability, predictability and controllability for high-resolution additive printing of flexible paper electronics, enabling a host of technologies spanning sensing, biomedical devices, and renewable energy. The development of R2R printing of electronics on paper ushers in a new era of environmentally-friendly, flexible paper devices such as water quality sensors at throwaway prices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.