ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF 3D PRINTED FUNCTIONAL THIN FILMS

In this work we report on the electrical and material characterization of functional 3D printed features. 3D printing is a manufacturing technology fabricating 3D objects through continuous layers deposition of the desired material according to predetermined design. Functionalized printing is when the printed object has a specific function beyond the conventional printing patterning and graphics.

The goals of the project reported here are:

1. Estimating the mechanical characterization of printed 3D structures- specifically the hardness of the polymeric substrates. The polymeric substrate were made by a Stratasys inc. tool.
2. Testing the electrical conductivity appropriate for the application of the devices; resistance measurements of the 3D printed Aluminum layers on glass substrates.

The aluminum was directly printed using the Laser Induced Froward Transfer (LIFT) method developed by Orbotech Inc. We measured both DC resistance and AC impedance in the range of 20 HZ- 1 MHz on the functionally printed samples.

Upper limit of the resistivity was measured by AC measurement. We found resistivity of the Aluminum samples deposited layer to be ~31 times larger than the resistivity of pure aluminum.

Resistivity was also measured by DC measurement. In this method we found the resistivity of the Aluminum samples to be ~ 7 times larger than the resistivity of pure aluminum.

The reason for this difference is that the pure Aluminum is a solid layer, at optimal conditions, while the Aluminum in the samples was fabricated from Aluminum droplets that were only locally melted by the LASER beam.