Optomec, a leading global supplier of production-grade additive manufacturing systems for 3D printed electronics and 3D printed metals, announced its Aerosol Jet Technology has been deployed by Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering to advance  3D micro-additive manufacturing methods for fully printed conformal sensors, low loss passives and antennas for on-chip and off-chip electronics. These advancements have significant potential to drive next-generation manufacturing processes.
 
Carnegie Mellon’s Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Laboratory (AMML), led by Dr. Rahul Panat, is working on solving fundamental and applied problems in the areas of printed and flexible microelectronics manufacturing and lithium-ion batteries. These areas are highly relevant to realize devices and systems for wearable and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Examples include smart contact lenses, wearable electronic clothing, robotic skins, bio-patches etc.
 
“We employ an Optomec Aerosol Jet 3D print system to directly print nanoparticle inks and polymers over complex surfaces” said Dr. Panat.“The Aerosol Jet system has enabled us to fully print 3D antennas at the sub 100um length scale and to conduct simulation studies to identify omnidirectional antenna designs. These fabrication methods are unique and can pave way for several applications in the high-speed communication areas.”
 
The team has also demonstrated recently that complex 3D battery architectures fabricated by Aerosol Jet show electrode utilization and fast-charge discharge cycles. Dr. Panat and his team are focused on developing next generation fully printed and in-situ cured solutions that have practical use within mainstream manufacturing. Click here to access a previous published white paper on Aerosol Jet 3D micro-structure printing.