The Importance of Additive Manufacturing in Electronic Design

Conventional fabrication methods involving photolithography processes pose significant disadvantages, including hazardous chemical preparation and the use of rare-earth material waste. The goal of any sustainable and efficient fabrication technology must be suitable for rapid prototyping or fully functional electronic devices.

That’s why there’s a growing need for additive manufacturing (AM) across a range of electronic design systems. Components such as transistors, silicon-controlled rectifiers, diodes, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), operational amplifiers, and passive devices have complex fabrication processes due to their functionalities.

Figure 1: Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro can be used for enclosures, mounts, and jigs for testing and product assembly. (Image source: Creality)

Today, 3D printing of electronic components has disrupted design and manufacturing, offering the potential to build complex products with layered capabilities. This approach is considered the next frontier in AM and printed electronics due to its benefits, including reduced material waste, time bottlenecks, and setup costs.

Plus, with the complexities of the supply chain and the dynamic requirements for electronic components, companies adopting AM can precisely manufacture product batches that exactly meet demand without surplus. Such planned production in turn generates less electronic waste than subtractive manufacturing techniques.

Additively manufactured electronics (AME) is the solution to signal reflection and electromagnetic interference within multilayered electronic boards. AME uses conductive and nonconductive materials in the same 3D printing system to create three-dimensional circuits that can be embedded into protective enclosures. So, electronic designers can benefit from efficient space utilization that minimizes interconnect losses and reduces the overall size of the boards.

Success necessitates use of the right 3D printing technology. For example, FDM is often suitable for cost efficiency, SLA for fine detailing, and SLS for strong components. 3D printing materials also make a difference: PLA is suitable for building basic models and ABS for manufacturing parts with high durability.

Ways Electronic Designers Leverage 3D Printing

When it comes to AM electronic components, there are two ways: contact and non-contact 3D printing. Designers can use contact printing that transfers the ink via direct contact between the ink and the target substrate for manufacturing electronic components at an industrial scale.

Figure 2: MG Chemicals PLA 3D printing filament is suitable for high-resolution applications while ABS for flexibility and higher temperature resistance. (Image source: MG Chemicals)

But there is an emerging market for rapid prototyping of these complex electronic circuits. More and more engineers are steering towards contactless inkjet printing. Considered suitable for fabricating prototypes at low volumes for simple circuit boards. The technique offers high throughput and reduced costs but suffers from possible damages to the bottom layer during the printing process.

The efficiency of AM has drastically improved, aiding electronic designers in focusing on innovating circuit designs. Technologies such as selective laser sintering (SLS) and multi-jet fusion (MJF) can handle the production of these boards — something that was a drawback earlier. A good batch size of electronic casings and breadboards can be quickly manufactured with AM compared to traditional processes.

Additional reading: What is 3D Printing and How Does It Work?

Looking at the IoT application space, designers can leverage AM for embedded devices with advanced functionalities, such as sensing, processing, and actuation systems. Particularly, there is substantial attention on miniaturized systems in the medical, robotic, and aerospace fields.

Space agencies such as NASA and its Glenn Research Center built an embedded system to be integrated into the spacecraft. Because of the ability of AM to incorporate multifunctioning components into 3D printed structures, miniaturized fabricated devices can be deployed in area-constrained systems.

Future of Additively Manufactured Electronics

3D printed electronic devices are widely used across power electronics, sensors, batteries, solar cells, stretchable electronics, and wearables. New methodologies have been adopted to overcome the signal integrity and thermal management issues encountered by conventional manufacturing methods.

The future lies in greater adoption of 3D printed functional electronics at industrial-level applications.