Toward Defect-Free Additive Fabricating of Flexible and Hybrid Electronics: Physics-Based Computational Modeling and Control of Aerosol Jet Printing

Aerosol jet printing (AJP) is a direct-write, additive manufacturing technique, which has emerged as the process of choice for the fabrication of a broad spectrum of electronics - such as, interconnects, sensors, transistors, electrodes, and antennae - toward consistent and uniform manufacture of flexible and hybrid electronic devices. The AJP has paved the way for rapid high-resolution device fabrication; it accommodates a wide range of ink viscosity and allows for material deposition with high placement accuracy, edge definition, and adhesion on non-planer surfaces. Despite the unique advantages and engendered strategic applications, the AJP process is intrinsically unstable and complex, prone to non-linear gradual drifts, which stem from process, machine, and metrical interactions. Consequently, real-time process monitoring and control, corroborated with physical models, is a burgeoning need.