Sensor Assisted Closed-Loop Conformal Printing of Electronics Using Multiaxis Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing is a promising technology for making electronics with complex geometry shapes. However, they typically need to be printed on conformal surfaces and are highly sensitive to imperfections on the surfaces. Both challenges, unfortunately, can’t be met with the current technology. The main cause is the open loop control in today’s AM practices. In this paper, we demonstrate a technology prototype that uses sensor assistance to create an end-to-end closed-loop additive manufacturing capability for making RF electronics. We show how a displacement sensor can be incorporated into a nScrypt 3DX-700 multiaxis printer, and scan in-situ the conformal surfaces and previously existing imperfections. The in-situ scanning’s results are then used to adjust future printing operations. The evaluation with several benchmark models shows that our technology can successfully manufacture RF electronic devices conforming to the design specifications.