Integrated Additive Manufacturing: Combining Mechanical and Electrical Functionality

该研究计划的目标是创造新的制造技术，将3D打印和印刷电子这两种不同的增材制造技术整合在一起。这将使具有机械和电气功能的系统的增材制造成为可能，具有低成本、可定制性和电子元件大面积覆盖等优点。作为一个演示案例，我们将重点介绍在3D打印基板上打印晶体管，这是以前没有做过的。晶体管在许多应用中具有重要的技术意义，它们是任何新的微加工技术的良好测试平台。晶体管需要印刷三种不同的材料（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，也需要均匀、无缺陷的半导体和栅极电介质薄膜。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3D打印过程的建模和优化相结合来实现这一目标，通过喷涂打印平滑的夹层，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故意3D结构的表面上，例如曲率和倾斜表面。全喷墨印刷的有机薄膜晶体管（OTFT）将首先在传统的塑料薄膜基板上实现。最先进的三元共混材料将首次用于全打印结构。这将大大提高性能，超过全印刷OTFT的电流限制。到目前为止所讨论的努力大多将同时进行。最后，它们将被集成到3D打印表面上打印晶体管。晶体管将在可变性和产量方面进行表征和优化，这将是3D打印基板的关键挑战。该计划为高素质人才的培训提供了许多机会。研究生和本科生研究人员不仅在增材制造方面具有很高的技能，而且在化学，流体力学，微加工和微电子器件等相关领域也具有很高的技能。这项研究计划的结果不仅会对科学界产生影响，还会对加拿大不断增长的增材制造和印刷电子行业产生影响。这里开发的基本理解和一般制造过程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，传感器允许用户获得更真实的触觉和温度，以及集成的致动器，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.