NONDESTRUCTIVE PROCESSING OF PRINTED BIMODAL MATREIALS FOR FABRICATION OF MULTI-FUNCTIONAL FLEXIBLE DEVICES

  

Printed electronics (PE) is one of the fastest growing technologies in the 21^st century. Recent reports have shown that PE market will reach 4.9 billion by 2032. PE refers to additive deposition of materials to fabricate electrical circuits, interconnects, and devices. 

The quest for developing nondestructive processes that enables additive manufacturing of low-cost PEs on heat-sensitive substrates with novel functionalities has resulted in several recent developments in the field which includes investigation of selective and optical sintering processes such as photonic sintering and laser sintering, to name a few. Broadly, this dissertation is an effort to study these sintering technologies for additive manufacturing of bimodal (metal/metal, metal/inorganic, and metal/organic) printed material compositions.  

In the first section, nondestructive sintering technologies is combined with chemical sintering to develop bimodal metallic conductive pastes for the fabrication of biodegradable and non-biodegradable printed devices for applications in food packaging and wireless smart drug delivery.

Next, a process is developed via near-infrared (NIR) technology to enable soldering and mounting electrical components onto printed materials using low-temperature bimodal metal/organic solder pastes. The developed optimized process is used to fabricate a flexible printed hybrid device for remote assessment of the wound exudate absorption in dressings.

Lastly, laser processing is used to fabricate an antibacterial bimodal silver containing glass ceramics coating directly on temperature-sensitive polymeric surgical meshes. The integrated bioceramic coating on the mesh exhibits long-lasting antibacterial properties against Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains of bacteria. 

The results of this dissertation will open a new route of research to fabricate low-cost devices with bimodal materials with applications in medical device, healthcare, and packaging industries.