3D Printing of Adaptable Wireless Systems

我们建议开发用于新添加剂制造的新材料和新方法，并将其应用于高频通信的智能电子和天线。随着电子设备和无线通信协议的激增，需要使用尖端技术来改进数据的无线传输和接收，以最大限度地利用可用带宽，并减小封装尺寸。与晶体管不同，天线设计将有基本的尺寸限制，以便在特定频率下有效。对于要生产的紧凑型天线设计，实际上需要制造具有3D功能的天线，而不是大多数电子产品中常见的典型平面设计。对于采用传统制造技术的小型天线来说，这种结构的成本高得令人望而却步。能够制造出感兴趣的特征尺寸和质量的微制造主要局限于像硅或玻璃这样的平坦、坚硬的基板。然而，逐层堆积材料的添加制造技术对于这些应用来说更具成本效益，因为微结构特征可以在单一工艺中生产出更大的结构。然而，大多数公司不允许同时打印各种不同的材料。此外，商用3D打印机通常只使用一种技术，而不是同时使用两种技术。为了生产天线和电子产品，添加用喷墨打印技术打印的金属纳米颗粒应该与在挤压型工艺中经济地生产3D部件相结合。我们开发了一种采用多沉积技术的定制3D打印机，用于多种材料集成，将生产出紧凑而高效的智能材料和天线。此外，这些天线还将通过集成MEMS和微流体致动器来动态修改天线形状和性能，从而适应环境和通信要求。从工业角度来看，加法制造业是一个极具兴趣的领域，在美国境内投资巨大。通过这项工作的支持，加拿大将走在这一领域研究的前沿。

We are proposing the development of novel materials and methods for new additive manufacturing and its application towards smart electronics and antennas for high frequency communications. With the proliferation of electronic devices, and wireless communications protocols, cutting edge techniques to improve the wireless transmission and reception of data are necessary to make best use of available bandwidth, and reduce package sizes. Unlike transistors, antenna designs will have a fundamental size limitation to be effective at specific frequencies. For compact antenna designs to be produced, it is actually required to manufacture them with 3D features rather than the typically planar designs found in most electronics. Such structures are prohibitively expensive for small antennas with traditional manufacturing technologies. Microfabrication, which can produce the feature sizes and quality of interest is limited primarily to flat, rigid substrates like silicon or glass. Additive manufacturing techniques which build up a material layer by layer are much more cost effective for these applications however, as microstructured features can be produced as well as larger structures in a single process. What most do not allow however is the ability to print widely different materials all at the same time. Additionally, commercial 3D printers will often use only a single technique but not both at once. To produce antennas and electronics, the addition of metal nanoparticles, printed with inkjet techniques should be combined with economical production of 3D parts in extrusion type processes. Our development of a custom 3D printer with multi-deposition technology for multiple material integration will produce smart materials and antennas that are compact and efficient. Additionally, these antennas will also be adaptable to environmental and communications requirements through the integration of MEMS and microfluidics actuators to dynamically modify antenna shapes and performance. Additive manufacturing is an area of extreme interest from an industrial perspective with heavy investment within the US. Canada will be at the forefront of research in this field through the support of this work.