Development of a modular roll-2-roll printing system for integrated electronic circuitry

加法制造通过3D打印获得了相当大的公众关注，而其2D对应的制造已经是某些可打印电子产品的成熟大规模工业生产工艺，包括有机发光二极管显示器和柔性光伏。适用于中等集成密度应用的可印刷电子产品通过新的印刷工艺流程不断发展，但首先也是最重要的是开发用于导体、半导体、绝缘体和高级功能的新功能油墨。该项目的目标是设计和制造一种模块化的卷筒-2辊印刷装置，允许在智能标签或可穿戴设备等柔性电子产品中集成不同的电子功能。这些电子功能将包括电池、射频天线、一些逻辑和非易失性电阻RAM。为了构思一个原型，还提出了一种能够适应第三方解决方案的模块化设计，包括从表面修改到适应润湿性的完整制造过程，墨水本身的转移，包括反馈模式下的光学控制对准单元，几种可选的烧结和保护器件结构免受机械磨损的叠层单元。该项目依赖于工业合作伙伴在设计和建造沉积技术方面的能力，以及现有的卷筒加工经验和展示了第一个完全喷墨打印的非易失性阻性随机存取存储器的学术合作伙伴的经验。这两个合作伙伴已经在各种场合成功合作，并有来自萨斯喀彻温省和德国的外部合作者，在印刷工艺的专门方面以及印刷结构的结构和化学特征方面提供协助。

Additive manufacturing has gained substantial public attention through 3D printing while its 2D counterpart is already an established large scale industrial production process for certain printable electronics including organic light emitting diode displays and flexible photovoltaics. Printable electronics for applications with moderate integration densities are consistently evolving through new printing process flows but first and foremost through the development of new functional inks for conductors, semiconductors, insulators and advanced functionalities.The aim of this project is to design and to build a modular roll-2-roll printing setup that allows for the integration of different electronic functions for applications in flexible electronics such as smart tags or wearables. These electronics functions will comprise a battery, an RF antenna, some logic and non-volatile resistive RAM. In order to conceive a prototype, a modular design also able to accommodate third party solutions is suggested that includes the complete fabrication process from the surface modification for adapted wettability, the transfer of ink itself including an optical controlled alignment unit in feedback mode, several options for sintering and a lamination unit to protect the device structure against mechanical wear.The project relies on the competence of the industrial partner in the design and construction of deposition technique with existing experience in roll-2-roll processing and the experience of the academic partner who has demonstrated the first fully ink-jet printed non-volatile resistive random access memory. Both partners have already successfully collaborated on various occasions and have external collaborators from Saskatchewan and Germany to assist with dedicated aspects of printing processes and the structural and chemical characterization of the printed structures.