High-temperature 3D printer with integrated laser to create graphene electronics in 3D printed engineering plastics

申请的资金将用于购买高温3D打印机。该打印机将联合收割机工程塑料的3D打印与其他制造能力相结合，将电子产品集成到3D打印物体中。虽然3D打印在工业上越来越可行，但迫切需要集成电子产品并创建智能3D打印对象。例如，在3D打印定制假肢中集成传感器将增强其功能，并使截肢者更准确地近似真实的肢体。特别是，所要求的3D打印机将包含CO2激光器，可用于选择性地将3D打印材料转化为导电石墨烯。这是一个非常简单，快速和具有成本效益的过程来创建纳米材料。石墨烯是传感应用的理想选择，其电性能可以通过调整激光参数来优化。我们最近首次证明了这一过程可以应用于3D打印结构。与之前在非3D打印材料上的结果相比，我们已经实现了创纪录的低电阻。这使得该过程可以将电子产品集成到3D打印物体中。该工艺适用于高温聚合物，这些聚合物具有最佳的机械性能，最适合实际应用。我们的研究计划的进展目前受到限制，因为我们无法直接获得所需的设备。附近的大学没有可用于这些研究的高温3D打印机。目前，我们依赖于支付外部3D打印机服务，这意味着我们对流程的控制非常有限。所要求的设备具有开放式架构，这将使我们能够修改工艺科学研究的所有参数并优化性能。将激光器集成在同一系统中将使我们能够在不从3D打印机中取出样品的情况下进行石墨烯的激光生成。这将使我们能够将石墨烯埋在3D打印的样品中，而不会出现热翘曲等问题。打印机的5轴运动系统将使激光在3D物体的任何表面上生成石墨烯。打印机还包括表征工具，用于研究3D打印结构和激光诱导石墨烯的特性。我们将进行研究，以了解和优化3D打印聚合物上的石墨烯生成过程，以及如何最好地将其集成到3D打印结构中。最后，我们将创建真实的应用程序原型。所要求的设备包括拾取和放置以及连接硅芯片的焊接工具。石墨烯将用于大面积传感，而小硅芯片将用于数据处理和无线通信。这些不同能力的结合使所要求的设备在加拿大独一无二。

The requested funds will be used to purchase a high-temperature 3D printer. The printer will combine 3D printing of engineering plastics with other fabrication capabilities to integrate electronics into 3D printed objects. Whilst 3D printing is becoming increasingly industrially viable, there is an urgent need to integrate electronics and create smart 3D printed objects. For example, the integration of sensors in 3D printed customized prosthetics will enhance their capabilities and give amputees a more accurate approximation of the real limb. In particular, the requested 3D printer will contain a CO2 laser that can be used to selectively transform 3D printed material into conductive graphene. This is a very simple, fast and cost-effective process to create a nanomaterial. The graphene is ideal for sensing applications and its electrical properties can be optimized by tuning the laser parameters. We have recently demonstrated for the first time that this process can be applied to 3D printed structures. We have achieved record low resistance compared to previous results on not 3D printed material. This makes the process viable to integrate electronics into 3D printed objects. The process works on high-temperature polymers, which have the best mechanical properties and are most well suited for real-world applications. The progress of our research program is currently limited by the fact that we do not have direct access to the required equipment. No high-temperature 3D printer is available at a university in the vicinity that could be used for these studies. Currently, we rely on paying for an external 3D printer service, which means we have very limited control over the process. The requested equipment has an open architecture, which will allow us to modify all parameters for scientific studies of the process and optimize performance. The integration of the laser in the same system will allow us to perform the laser generation of the graphene without removing samples from the 3D printer. This will allow us to bury graphene within 3D printed samples without problems such as thermal warpage. The printer's 5-axis motion system will enable laser generation of graphene on any surface of 3D objects. The printer also includes characterization tools to study the properties of the 3D printed structure and the laser-induced graphene in-situ. We will perform studies to understand and optimize the graphene generation process on 3D printed polymers and how to best integrate it in 3D printed structures. Finally, we will create real application prototypes. The requested equipment includes pick and place and soldering tools to attach silicon chips. The graphene will be used for large-area sensing whilst the small silicon chips will be used for data processing and wireless communication. The combination of these different capabilities makes the requested equipment unique in Canada.