Aerosol Jet® Enabled 3D Antenna and Sensors for IoT Applications

There is fast growing demand for antennas and sensors directly integrated into products including smartphones, wearables, structural components, and other products related to the Internet of Things (IoT). While IoT applications are varied, the common requirement for such “Smart Connected Devices” is an inherent need for sensors (“smart”) and antennas (“connected”). Emerging 3-Dimensional “Direct Write” approaches for creating antenna and sensors enable rapid design and prototyping, reduce manufacturing steps and associated costs, and broaden the choice of target substrate shapes and materials. Optomec has developed a high volume printing solution for the production of 3D antenna and 3D sensors that are tightly integrated with an underlying product ranging from Smartphones to Industrial Components. Aerosol Jet® is a non-contact, room temperature deposition method that is used to print a wide variety of materials, including conductive, semiconducting, ceramic, CNT, graphene and other functional inks suitable for the fabrication of antenna and sensor that are directly integrated onto existing 3D products and structures. Case studies involving direct printing of various antenna (ie: Broadband, Bluetooth, NFC, etc) and sensors (ie: Strain, Creep, etc.) will be presented. Material considerations, including performance and reliability metrics will be discussed; and examples of via filling, wrap-around printing, and five axis motion will be shown.

Fabrication of BaTiO3-Based Semiconducting Ceramic Thick Films by Aqueous Tape Casting

Semiconducting barium titanate powderss with an average particle size less than 40 nm were used for tape casting. Green tapes with a thickness of 100-500 μm were tape-cast from aqueous slurry of barium titanate powders using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as binder and polyelectrolyte ammonium salt as dispersant. The solid loading, viscosity and rheological properties of the ceramic slurries were investigated. Slurries with low viscosity were obtained when the concentration of dispersant was 1.5-2.0 wt% (based on ceramic powders weight) with fixed 75 wt% solid loading. The highest solid loading and optimum dispersion were determined through the proper viscosity to cast. Microstructure and PTC effect of the ceramic chips were studied as a function of firing temperature. Yttrium ions were homogeneously diffused into barium lattices at a low temperature of 1240 °C, and fine-grained PTC ceramics with grain size of 1-2 μm were developed successfully. These results can be explained by the higher rate of reactivity of finer powders and stable behavior of the suspension.