Optomec announced today that the company will feature Aerosol Jet printing for 3D Printed Electronics applications at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe Conference. The conference will be held April 17-18 at the International Conference Centrum Berlin. Aerosol Jet Systems will be showcased in booth #D-6.
Optomec’s exhibit will feature demonstrations of complex mechanical structures that were functionalized using Aerosol Jet 3D printed electronics capabilities. On display will be a working RF antenna and power distribution circuitry directly printed onto an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) wing, which itself was printed with the Stratasys Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process. The RF antenna transmits live video from a camera to a remote display monitor. The propeller and LED are powered by circuits also printed on the wing structure with Aerosol Jet. The electrical and sensor designs were provided by Aurora Flight Sciences, a supplier of UAVs. For a video demonstration of the UAV smart structure, click here.
The Aerosol Jet process creates a highly collimated beam of material that remains tightly focused during its travel from the nozzle to the target substrate. The deposited features can be as small as 10 um or as large as several millimeters in a single pass. Additionally, a wide assortment of materials can be printed, such as conductive nano-particle inks and conductive polymers, adhesives, ceramics and bio-active materials. The nozzle direction and XYZ positioning is controlled by CAD/CAM software, which allows conformal printing onto 2.5D substrates, which have a high level of surface topography, as well as full 3D surfaces. For example, electronic features can be printed onto 3D shapes or into trenches and vias. For more information on Aerosol Jet printing, click here.
The IDTechEx Printed Electronics conference and tradeshow is the world's largest on the topic and growing rapidly every year. The IDTechEx Printed Electronics tradeshow matches potential adopters with Printed Electronics solution providers. The conference program features a broad range of speakers, from industry leaders in healthcare, packaging, advertising/media, military and more. For detailed information on the conference go to http://www.idtechex.com/printed-electronics-europe/pe.asp.