3D Printing Functionality: Materials, Sensors, Electromagnetics

A special issue of Designs (ISSN 2411-9660). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrical Engineering Design".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2021) | Viewed by 15202

Special Issue Editor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854, USA
Interests: advanced/additive manufacturing; frequency selective surfaces; metamaterials; electromagnetic materials; printable electronics; RF-Microwave; GHz; THz; Vis-IR
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, there has been a rise in the commercial, industrial, and academic interest in the rapid prototyping technology, commonly referred to as additive manufacturing and 3D printing.  Traditionally, additive technologies have been limited to purely mechanical applications. However, in recent years there has been a surge in advanced manufacturing investigations ranging from printed sensors and antennas to chemical and thermal functional materials.  This additional functionality, incorporated with the ease and speed of traditional additive techniques, has the potential to revolutionize the production processes.  It is expected that advances in functional printing techniques will drastically reduce time-to-market as well as improve overall device functionality.  As such, this Special Issue is intended to examine new techniques, designs, and processes that improve the functionality of printable and 3D printable devices or material systems.  Of particular interest are topics that incorporate multiple means of functionality, whether through mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, electrical, or chemical means.  

Prof. Dr. Corey Shemelya
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • printable materials
  • 3D printing
  • rapid prototyping
  • multi-functionality
  • electromagnetics
  • antennas
  • sensors
  • design-on-demand
  • structural electronics
  • electronics

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Editorial

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2 pages, 143 KiB  
Editorial
3D Printing Functionality: Materials, Sensors, Electromagnetics
by Corey Shemelya
Designs 2023, 7(1), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/designs7010033 - 20 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1027
Abstract
Additive manufacturing has enabled multifunctional structures, sensors, devices, and platforms to be used in a multitude of fields [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing Functionality: Materials, Sensors, Electromagnetics)

Research

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13 pages, 2208 KiB  
Article
Overcoming Variability in Printed RF: A Statistical Method to Designing for Unpredictable Dimensionality
by Katherine Berry, Eric M. Brown, Bradley Pothier, Samuel Fedorka, Alkim Akyurtlu, Craig Armiento, Gary F. Walsh and Corey Shemelya
Designs 2022, 6(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/designs6010013 - 05 Feb 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2255
Abstract
As additively manufactured radio frequency (RF) design expands towards higher frequencies, performance becomes ever more sensitive to print-induced dimensional variations. These slight deviations from design dimensions typically skew RF performance, resulting in low yields or poor device performance. In order to overcome this [...] Read more.
As additively manufactured radio frequency (RF) design expands towards higher frequencies, performance becomes ever more sensitive to print-induced dimensional variations. These slight deviations from design dimensions typically skew RF performance, resulting in low yields or poor device performance. In order to overcome this limitation, RF design paradigms must be developed for non-uniform process and material-specific variations. Therefore, a new generalized approach is developed to explore variation-tolerant designs for printed RF structures. This method evaluates the feature fidelity and S11 performance of micro-dispensed, X-band (8–12 GHz) patch antennas by evaluating the standard deviation in as-printed features, surface roughness, and thickness. It was found that the traditional designs based on optimal impedance matching values did not result in the most robust performance over multiple printing sessions. Rather, performance bounds determined by print deviation could be utilized to improve large-batch S11 results by up to 7 dB. This work demonstrates that establishing the average standard deviation of printed dimensions in any RF printing system and following the formulated design procedure could greatly improve performance over large datasets. As such, the method defined here can be applied to improve large-scale, printed RF yields and enable predictive performance metrics for any given printing method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing Functionality: Materials, Sensors, Electromagnetics)
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15 pages, 5106 KiB  
Article
An Automated Open-Source Approach for Debinding Simulation in Metal Extrusion Additive Manufacturing
by Tobias Rosnitschek, Johannes Glamsch, Christopher Lange, Bettina Alber-Laukant and Frank Rieg
Designs 2021, 5(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/designs5010002 - 02 Jan 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3638
Abstract
As an alternative to powder-bed based processes, metal parts can be additively manufactured by extrusion based additive manufacturing. In this process, a highly filled polymer filament is deposited and subsequently debindered and sintered. Choosing a proper orientation of the part that satisfies the [...] Read more.
As an alternative to powder-bed based processes, metal parts can be additively manufactured by extrusion based additive manufacturing. In this process, a highly filled polymer filament is deposited and subsequently debindered and sintered. Choosing a proper orientation of the part that satisfies the requirements of the debinding and sintering processes is crucial for a successful manufacturing process. To determine the optimal orientation for debinding, first, the part must be scaled in order to compensate the sinter induced shrinkage. Then, a finite element analysis is performed to verify that the maximum stresses due to the dead load do not exceed the critical stress limits. To ease this selection process, an approach based on open source software is shown in this article to efficiently determine a part’s optimal orientation during debinding. This automates scaling, debinding simulation, and postprocessing for all six main directions. The presented automated simulation framework is examined on three application examples and provides plausible results in a technical context for all example parts, leading to more robust part designs and a reduction of experimental trial and error. Therefore, the presented framework is a useful tool in the product development process for metal extrusion additive manufacturing applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing Functionality: Materials, Sensors, Electromagnetics)
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15 pages, 2614 KiB  
Article
Interconnections for Additively Manufactured Hybridized Printed Electronics in Harsh Environments
by Clayton Neff, Edwin Elston and Amanda Schrand
Designs 2020, 4(2), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/designs4020014 - 18 Jun 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3839
Abstract
The ability to fabricate functional 3D conductive elements via additive manufacturing has opened up a unique sector of ‘hybridized printed electronics’. In doing so, many of the rigid standards (i.e., planar circuit boards, potting, etc.,) of traditional electronics are abandoned. However, one critical [...] Read more.
The ability to fabricate functional 3D conductive elements via additive manufacturing has opened up a unique sector of ‘hybridized printed electronics’. In doing so, many of the rigid standards (i.e., planar circuit boards, potting, etc.,) of traditional electronics are abandoned. However, one critical challenge lies in producing robust and reliable interconnections between conductive inks and traditional hardware, especially when subjected to harsh environments. This research examines select material pairings for the most resilient interconnection. The method of test is wire bond pull testing that would represent a continuous strain on a connection and high acceleration testing of up to 50,000 g that would represent a sudden shock that electronics may experience in a drop or crash. Although these two environments may be similar to an overall energy exerted on the connection, the rate of force exerted may lead to different solutions. The results of this research provide insight into material selection for printed electronic interconnections and a framework for interconnection resiliency assessment, which is a critical aspect in realizing the production of next generation electronics technologies for the most demanding environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing Functionality: Materials, Sensors, Electromagnetics)
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Other

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17 pages, 7267 KiB  
Concept Paper
A Shape Optimization Method for Part Design Derived from the Buildability Restrictions of the Directed Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing Process
by Andreas K. Lianos, Harry Bikas and Panagiotis Stavropoulos
Designs 2020, 4(3), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/designs4030019 - 01 Jul 2020
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3139
Abstract
The design methodologies and part shape algorithms for additive manufacturing (AM) are rapidly growing fields, proven to be of critical importance for the uptake of additive manufacturing of parts with enhanced performance in all major industrial sectors. The current trend for part design [...] Read more.
The design methodologies and part shape algorithms for additive manufacturing (AM) are rapidly growing fields, proven to be of critical importance for the uptake of additive manufacturing of parts with enhanced performance in all major industrial sectors. The current trend for part design is a computationally driven approach where the parts are algorithmically morphed to meet the functional requirements with optimized performance in terms of material distribution. However, the manufacturability restrictions of AM processes are not considered at the primary design phases but at a later post-morphed stage of the part’s design. This paper proposes an AM design method to ensure: (1) optimized material distribution based on the load case and (2) the part’s manufacturability. The buildability restrictions from the direct energy deposition (DED) AM technology were used as input to the AM shaping algorithm to grant high AM manufacturability. The first step of this work was to define the term of AM manufacturability, its effect on AM production, and to propose a framework to estimate the quantified value of AM manufacturability for the given part design. Moreover, an AM design method is proposed, based on the developed internal stresses of the build volume for the load case. Stress tensors are used for the determination of the build orientation and as input for the part morphing. A top-down mesoscale geometric optimization is used to realize the AM part design. The DED Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) rules are used to delimitate the morphing of the part, representing at the same time the freeform mindset of the AM technology. The morphed shape of the part is optimized in terms of topology and AM manufacturability. The topology optimization and AM manufacturability indicator (TMI) is introduced to screen the percentage of design elements that serve topology optimization and the ones that serve AM manufacturability. In the end, a case study for proof of concept is realized. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing Functionality: Materials, Sensors, Electromagnetics)
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