Additive low temperature 3D printed electronic as enabling technology for IoT application

There is no industrial method readily available to deposit a functional conductive metal pattern for electronic application on vertical sidewalls of thermal sensitive plastic materials. The most common methods (as dispensing and screen printing for example) allow material deposition on flat surfaces; other methods such an ink jet printing and AJP (Aerosol Jet Printing) can accept a certain surface curvature and eventually some surface unflattens. In this work we developed and demonstrated an additive low temperature method that can deposit conductive silver pattern on vertical surfaces of plastic materials. The demonstrated method comprises several steps. It starts from low temperature deposition conductive tracks on a plastic temporary carrier, a carrier 3D shaping, and a conductive track transfer from the temporary carrier onto the receiving permanent 3D shaped functional structure. The 3D receiving structure serves as a case or housing for electronic systems. Furthermore, it can replace conventional PCB with conductive tracks and mounting pads for mounting of electronic components. Using the developed method, we processed and assembled in house a fully functional working 3D demonstrator. The 3D integrated demonstrator measures ambient temperature, humidity and light intensity, processes the received by the sensors data and wirelessly transfers them to a network. Other sensors can be easily added to the system. The developed technology is a key enabler for a wide range of IoT applications, for example in home and industrial automation applications.