3D-printed electronics are here

Researchers insert metal into component shapes.

The future is here. Researchers have demonstrated how a few simple instructions to a 3D printer and an ordinary syringe can enable homeowners to create their own wireless sensors.

The University of California, Berkeley in collaboration with Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University created a milk carton screw-on cap, which senses if the milk inside is spoiled. Professor Liwei Lin at the University of California, Berkeley and co-director of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center claims this is the first time anyone has demonstrated that 3D printing works for basic electrical components.

"We have shown that resistors, inductors and capacitors can be fabricated using a 3D printer, and formed into circuits as passive wireless sensors," Lin told EE Times. "The trick was to print with a polymer to define the needed 3D structures, and use wax as a sacrificial material to define where the passive components would be, then melt the wax and fill the resulting vacancies with silver paste using a syringe."

Other researchers have printed 3D circuitry using conductive polymers as the components, but Lin says the performance of such an approach can never be as good as using real metal as conductors. Li and his colleagues also used the same techniques to make wires and vias to connect all the components into wireless RLC circuits, which actually worked when tested.

To read the full article, please go to EETimes.

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