New 3-D printer unlocks 'mind-blowing' possibilities with electronics mfg

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WOW!!! Doesn't it seem that the field of 3-D printing is only limited by our ability to think far enough out of the box!! With this new printer, 3-D printing technology is now down to printing circuits/electronics at the 10 micron level, with a broad range of nano-materials!!

Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory

Installation of a highly advanced 3D printer for electronics at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has opened the door for creating miniature circuits on surfaces and substances that could never be used before.

The Optomec Aerosol Jet 500 system, which became operational in January, is capable of printing circuits with a broad range of nanomaterials, allowing engineers to manufacture conductors, semiconductors and microcircuits with an intricacy and flexibility not possible with the Lab's previous technology.

"To be able to print electronic components in 3D is a fundamental game changer," said Chris Bishop, electronics managing supervisor in LLNL's Materials Engineering Division (MED). "The hard part is figuring out what to focus on first."

Perhaps equally important, the 260 square-foot Optomec system can potentially replace an entire 2,700 square-foot electronics prototyping facility, which required a high volume of hazardous chemicals to operate.

"We're in the process of moving toward a safer environment," Bishop said. "It's really cool to say we've eliminated the hazard and have the same capability, but to have more capability in less space, it's huge."

Previously, the smallest components created in the facility were limited to 50-100 microns. The Optomec machine can print at 10 microns and also is not limited to copper or metallic inks. It's capable of utilizing a number of conductive and nonmetallic materials, even proteins, and printing on surfaces such as glass, plastic or kapton, a thin heat-resistant polymer. It also can print at any angle in three dimensions, meaning engineers can experiment with 3D-printed antennas, flexible circuits, components for robots and pressure and medical sensors.

Read more: https://www.llnl.gov/news/new-3d-printer-unlocks-mind-blowing-possibilities-electronics-manufacturing

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And another discussion of similar article relative to "micro-archtectured, ultra-lightweight supercapacitor in 3-D printing!!

Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory

Researchers 3D print ultralight supercapacitors

For the first time ever, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and UC Santa Cruz have successfully 3D-printed supercapacitors using an ultra-lightweight graphene aerogel, opening the door to novel, unconstrained designs of highly efficient energy storage systems for smartphones, wearables, implantable devices, electric cars and wireless sensors.

Using a 3D-printing process called direct-ink writing and a graphene-oxide composite ink designed at the Lab, the LLNL team was able to print micro-architected electrodes and build supercapacitors able to retain energy on par with those made with electrodes 10 to 100 times thinner.

The results were released online in the journal Nano Letters on Jan. 28.

"This breaks through the limitations of what 2D manufacturing can do," said engineer Cheng Zhu, the paper's lead author. "We can fabricate a large range of 3D architectures. In a phone (for instance) you would only need to leave a small area for energy storage. The geometry can be very complex."

Supercapacitors also can charge incredibly fast, Zhu said, in theory requiring just a few minutes or seconds to reach full capacity. In the future, Zhu and his fellow researchers believe newly designed 3D-printed supercapacitors will be used to create unique electronics that are currently difficult or even impossible to make using other synthetic methods, including fully customized smartphones and paper-based or foldable devices, while at the same time achieving unprecedented levels of performance.
Read more:  https://www.llnl.gov/news/researchers-3d-print-ultralight-supercapacitors