Rapid Prototyping of Multiscale Flexible Printed Circuit Boards With NeXus, a Robotic Additive Manufacturing System

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the NeXus system, a multiscale robotic additive manufacturing platform developed at the Louisville Automation and Robotics Research Institute, as a rapid prototyping tool through additively manufacturing a multilayer flexible printed circuit board (FPC) with a printed strain sensor and soldered surface mounted devices (SMD). Manufacturing of the demonstrator requires the application and curing of multiple materials with specialized properties, tools for automated assembly, and software advances to streamline the process enabling the use of industry-standardized programs to command the NeXus system. Additive manufacturing processes supported by the NeXus include aerosol jet printing (AJP) for fine feature silver conducting lines, direct write ink-jet printing for insulating materials, and intense pulsed light (IPL) for curing materials between depositions. The NeXus system transports and manipulates parts using a six-degree-of-freedom (DOF) high-precision positioner. Solder paste deposition and pick-and-place (PnP) procedures are performed by a 4DOF Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm (SCARA). Conversion methods between traditional printed circuit board (PCB) design software and production-ready command scripts were developed to translate basic drawings into command scripts. Multilayer structures with AJP 50-μm wide lines, an insulating bridge with a thickness of around 100 μm, and SMDs soldered to silver AJP pads were integrated within the demonstrator. An operational amplifier and other SMDs reduce the complexity of the accompanying control circuit and amplify the sensor's response by 1830 times. The successful fabrication of the demonstrator FPC highlights the rapid prototyping ability of the NeXus system.