Integrated Additive Manufacturing: Combining Mechanical and Electrical Functionality

这项研究计划的目标是创造新的制造技术，整合两种不同的增材制造技术3D打印和印刷电子。这将使增材制造系统具有机械和电气功能，具有低成本、可定制性和电子元件大面积覆盖等优势。作为示范案例，我们将专注于将晶体管打印到3D打印基板上，这是以前从未做过的。晶体管在技术上对许多应用都很重要，它们是任何新的微加工技术的良好试验台。晶体管需要打印三种不同的材料（金属、半导体和电介质）。它们既需要高分辨率的金属电极印刷，也需要用于半导体和栅极电介质的均匀、无缺陷的薄膜。一个主要的挑战将是克服3D打印表面的大粗糙度。我们将通过建模和优化3D打印过程的结合来实现这一目标，通过喷涂打印平滑中间层，并调整要在3D打印表面上打印的电子图案。我们还将研究如何最佳地打印到具有有意3D结构的表面上，如曲率和斜面。全喷墨印刷有机薄膜晶体管（OTFTs）将首先在传统的塑料薄膜衬底上实现。最先进的三元共混材料将首次用于全印刷结构。这将大大提高性能，超出目前完全印刷的otft的限制。到目前为止所讨论的努力将主要并行进行。最后，它们将集成在3D打印表面上打印晶体管。晶体管将在可变性和良率方面进行表征和优化，这将是3D打印基板的关键挑战。该计划为培养高素质人才提供了许多机会。研究生和本科生的研究人员不仅将成为高技能的增材制造，而且在相关领域，如化学，流体力学，微加工和微电子设备。这项研究计划的结果不仅会对科学界产生影响，而且会对加拿大不断增长的增材制造和印刷电子工业产生影响。这里开发的基本理解和一般制造工艺将适用于未来大量的物联网（IoT）应用，例如为每个用户定制的智能假肢，其传感器允许用户获得更真实的触觉和温度感，以及集成执行器，并且制造成本低廉。

The goal of this research program is to create new manufacturing technology integrating the two distinct additive manufacturing technologies 3D printing and printed electronics. This will enable the additive manufacturing of systems with both mechanical and electrical functionality with advantages such as low cost, customizability and large area coverage with electronic components. As a demonstration case, we will focus on the printing of transistors onto 3D printed substrates, which has not been done before. Transistors are technologically important for many applications and they are a good testbed for any new microfabrication technology. Transistors require the printing of three different materials (metal, semiconductor and dielectric). They require both high-resolution printing of metal electrodes and uniform, defect-free thin films for the semiconductor and gate dielectric. A main challenge will be to overcome the large roughness of 3D printed surfaces. We will achieve this by a combination of modeling and optimization of the 3D printing process, printing a smoothing interlayer by spray coating and adjusting the electronics pattern to be printed on top of the 3D printed surface. We will also study how to optimally print onto surfaces with intentional 3D structure such as curvature and inclined surfaces. Fully inkjet-printed organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) will be implemented first on traditional plastic film substrates. State-of-the-art ternary blend materials will be used for the first time in a fully-printed structure. This will considerably increase performance beyond the current limits for fully-printed OTFTs. The efforts discussed so far will run mostly in parallel. Finally, they will be integrated to print transistors on 3D printed surfaces. Transistors will be characterized and optimized in terms of variability and yield, which will be key challenges on 3D printed substrates. The program offers a number of opportunities for the training of highly qualified personnel. Graduate and undergraduate researchers will not only become highly-skilled in additive manufacturing but also in related areas such as chemistry, fluid mechanics, microfabrication and microelectronic devices. The results of this research program will not only have an impact on the scientific community but also the growing additive manufacturing and printed electronics industries in Canada. The basic understanding and general manufacturing processes developed here will be applicable to a great number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications in the future such as smart prosthetics that are customized to each individual user, with sensors allowing users to get a more realistic sense of touch and temperature, as well as integrated actuators, and that are cheap to manufacture.