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Design and Fabrication of an Experimental Microheater Array Powder Sintering Printer

  • Functional Materials for Printed, Flexible and Wearable Electronics
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Abstract

Microheater array powder sintering (MAPS) is a novel additive manufacturing process that uses an array of microheaters to selectively sinter powder particles. MAPS shows great promise as a new method of printing flexible electronics by enabling digital curing of conductive inks on a variety of substrates. For MAPS to work effectively, a microscale air gap needs to be maintained between the heater array and the conductive ink. In this article, we present an experimental MAPS printer with air gap control for printing conductive circuits. First, we discuss design aspects necessary to implement MAPS. An analysis is performed to validate that the design can maintain the desired air gap between the microheaters and the sintering layer, which consists of a silver nanoparticle ink. The printer is tested by printing conductive lines on a flexible plastic substrate with silver nanoparticle ink. Results show MAPS performs on par with or better than the existing fabrication methods for printed electronics in terms of both the print quality (conductivity of the printed line) and print speed, which shows MAPS’ great promise as a competitive new method for digital production of printed electronics.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities through the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards and from the University of Arkansas through the startup fund provided by the Vice Provost Office for Research and Economic Development. We thank Steven Brown for his assistance in building the experimental printer and Errol Porter and Clint Hardee for their assistance in developing the microheater array. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Arkansas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The AM3 Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Fayetteville, AR, USA

    Nicholas Holt & Wenchao Zhou

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  1. Nicholas Holt
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  2. Wenchao Zhou
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Correspondence to Wenchao Zhou.

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Holt, N., Zhou, W. Design and Fabrication of an Experimental Microheater Array Powder Sintering Printer. JOM 70, 1785–1792 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-018-2796-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-018-2796-1

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