NASA Investigates 3-D Printing for Building Densely Populated Electronic Assemblies
April 26, 2016 | NASAEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
As detector assemblies get smaller and denser — packed with electronic components that all must be electrically connected to sense and read out signals — it’s becoming increasingly more challenging to design and manufacture these all-important instrument devices.
A team of NASA technologists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, however, has begun investigating the use of a technique called aerosol jet printing or direct-write manufacturing to produce new detector assemblies that are not possible with traditional assembly processes.
“If we succeed, aerosol jet technology could define a whole new way to create dense electronic board assemblies and potentially improve the performance and consistency of electronic assemblies,” explained Goddard technologist Beth Paquette, who is leading the R&D effort that began last fiscal year. Furthermore, aerosol jet printing promises to slash the time it takes to manufacture circuit boards, from a month to a day or two, she added.
Important Distinction
As with other 3-D printing techniques, aerosol jet manufacturing builds components by depositing materials layer-by-layer following a computer-aided design, or CAD, drawing. However, jet aerosol printing offers an important difference.
Instead of melting and fusing plastic powder or some other material in precise locations, as in the case of many 3-D printers, aerosol jet printing uses a carrier gas and printer heads to deposit a fine aerosol of metal particles, including silver, gold, platinum, or aluminum, onto a surface. Aerosol jet printers also can deposit polymers or other insulators and can even print carbon nanotubes, cylindrically shaped carbon molecules that have novel properties useful in nanotechnology, electronics, and optics.
“It can print around bends, on spheres or on something flat, or on a flexible surface, which then can be flexed into the shape you want,” she said.
These attributes make the technology ideal for detector assemblies, particularly those that need to be shaped differently or are very small, yet dense because of the large number of tiny components that must be electrically wired or linked together on a circuit board — an inescapable reality as instruments get smaller and smaller.
“We can make these wires microns in width,” Paquette said. “These lines are very small, down to 10 microns wide. These sizes aren’t possible using traditional circuit board manufacturing processes.” (By way of comparison, the average human hair measures between 17 and 191 microns in width.)
Page 1 of 2
Suggested Items
Shane Whiteside of Summit Reflects on Today's PCB Landscape
05/08/2024 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamSummit Interconnect began as a printed circuit board manufacturing company just eight years ago and has seen impressive growth organically and through acquisition. Summit President and CEO Shane Whiteside takes a few moments to share his thoughts on the growing PCB industry in the United States.
BAE Systems and Eaton Expand Collaboration to Deliver Electric Drive Solutions for Heavy-Duty Trucks
05/08/2024 | PRNewswireBAE Systems, a leader in electric propulsion, and Eaton, a global power management company, are expanding their collaboration to include electric vehicle (EV) solutions for heavy-duty trucks.
Coherix Partners with EMU on 'Factory of the Future' Technology Program
05/08/2024 | PRNewswireMichigan-based Coherix is working with Eastern Michigan University (EMU) in Ypsilanti to develop "factory-of-the-future" manufacturing and assembly technology.
2024 Apple iPad Pro Estimated to Ship Between 4.5 to 5 Million Units
05/08/2024 | TrendForceApple’s recent product launch in May introduced a lineup of new tablets featuring advanced AMOLED screens. Notably, the Pro version boasts a dual-layer tandem structure designed to address the longstanding challenges of screen burn-in and lifespan that are common with AMOLED displays.
Simbe Partners with Plexus to Scale Manufacturing and Meet Global Retail Demand
05/08/2024 | Globe NewswireSimbe, the leading provider of Store Intelligence™ solutions that increase retailer performance through unprecedented visibility and insights, today announced a partnership with Plexus Corp. to bring its best-in-class retail robotics-as-a-service to market quickly and at global scale.