Conductive paths and connections on polymer substrates for structural electronics

Abstract

Structural Electronics is a modern, still developing technique of manufacturing electrical circuit merged with a mechanical construction of device. This approach opens new possibilities like higher components density, cost effective short series and prototypes or manufacturing of electronics in almost any place like third world countries or space station. In this paper, a novel method of fully printed electronic devices manufacturing is presented. Use of specially prepared paste with silver nanoparticles and microflakes, whose manufacturing procedure is described, as well as sintering with near infrared, continuous wave laser allows to get less than 35 mΩ electrical resistivity of a 1206 SMD resistor single joint. Different 3D printed substrates were tested as well as mechanical and electrical properties of joints were measured. Finally, a simple circuit with LEDs is manufactured, demonstrating the practical used of the presented technique.