Development of Conductive Filament for 3D Circuit Printing

Advantage of 3D circuit printing allow low volume fabrication of unique design. Conductive traces on selected area can be generated by Fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing using conductive filament [1], [2]. In this work, silver-based and carbon-based conductive acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) compostites were formulated and extruded as conductive filaments. In order to achieve filament with consistent resistance for circuit printing; pre-determined composition can be easily controlled during formulation process. Homogeneous filler polymer dispersion was prepared prior to drying and casting into conductive composite. The morphology of the composite at various processes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Loading percentage of silver or carbon fillers in ABS matrix was determined using thermogravimetric analysis.