Technical Articles From University of Tennessee

3D Printed Electronics

Jun 02, 2023 | M. Bowa, M. E. Dean, and R.D. Horn

Additive manufacturing is revolutionizing the way we build and produce a plethora of products spanning many industries. It has shown strong potential in reduced energy use, sustainability and cost effectiveness. Exploring avenues that this technology can be utilized is key to improve productivity and efficiencies in various applications including electronic systems and devices manufacturing. Electronic systems and sub-systems are built using a variety of material and processes, which require a large carbon footprint, significant waste material and high production time. We propose the application of 3D printing technology to support an integrative process for combining circuit board fabrication, solder mask process, electronic component pick and place and enclosure manufacturing. The integration of these separate processes into a single high efficiency additive manufacturing process will yield significant savings in energy use, carbon footprint, waste product and production time and cost.