Hybrid 3D-Printing of Molten Metal Microdroplets and Polymers for Prototyping of Printed Circuit Boards with Integrated Electrical Energy Storage Systems

This paper presents layer-by-layer additive manufacturing (AM) of molten metal microdroplets and dielectric materials to fabricate multilayer hybrid circuit boards and electrical energy storage systems (ESS). The printed metal lines have a low resistance of 4.96 mΩ/mm, 12 times lower than state-of-the-art conductive inks [1]. Benefiting from Sn-based oxide as a candidate for ESS [2], an out-of-plane capacitor module was fabricated from polymer and metal, highlighting a high aspect ratio of 16 for 20 metal layers. Multilayer hybrid electrical printed circuit board (PCB) is printed in a fully automated process without requiring post-processing as a solution for the one-stop printing of complex electrical circuits.