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

对能够准确、高速打印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将印刷的电子图案连续地转移到柔性基板上，对于大批量生产柔性电子设备非常有前途。然而，有一个重大的挑战需要克服，那就是多层印刷电子设备具有非常严格的对准公差要求，并且没有可用的可靠工具来实时监测和控制叠层对准精度。为了克服这一挑战，该奖项开发了使用建模和基于虚拟传感器的控制的卷到卷打印的精确对准。另一个挑战是压倒性地使用塑料作为基材，塑料是由石油基材料制造的，因此不能生物降解，这使得它们的生产和处置对环境有害。为了应对这些挑战，该奖项寻求将纸质基材作为柔性电子产品中塑料的可回收和环保替代品。这个跨学科的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型添加剂印刷的新技术，这些新技术将提供给美国制造研究所的创新管道。这项研究的结果有利于下一代环保的柔性电子产品，例如用于患者护理的更环保的一次性传感器或更低成本的嵌入式家用电子产品。教育活动促进跨学科的顶峰项目并增加学生？有制造业研究方面的实践学习经验。这支持了全国范围内培养下一代制造工程师的努力。该项目的目标是促进对功能纸电子设备的卷筒到卷筒(R2R)打印的基本理解。这项研究涉及到对空间变异产生的机制及其传播和积累的理解。空间误差传播的知识被用来开发虚拟传感，以实现对构成印刷纸张电子基础的多层微结构的创建、集成和操作的前所未有的控制。此外，该项目还研究了材料-工艺-控制-设备性能之间的闭环关系。这项研究加速了具有高可追溯性、可预测性和可控性的智能R2R系统，用于柔性纸电子产品的高分辨率添加剂打印，使一系列技术能够跨越传感、生物医学设备和可再生能源。在纸上进行R2R电子打印的发展开创了环保、灵活的纸张设备的新时代，例如一次性价格的水质传感器。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.