Fabrication of polyetheretherketone(PEEK)-based 3D electronics with fine resolution by a hydrophobic treatment assisted hybrid additive manufacturing method

Additive manufacturing(AM)is a free-form technology that shows great potential in the integrated creation of three-dimensional(3D)electronics.However,the fabrication of 3D conformal circuits that fulfill the requirements of high service temperature,high conductivity and high resolution remains a challenge.In this paper,a hybrid AM method combining the fused deposition modeling(FDM)and hydrophobic treatment assisted laser activation metallization(LAM)was proposed for manufacturing the polyetheretherketone(PEEK)-based 3D electronics,by which the conformal copper patterns were deposited on the 3D-printed PEEK parts,and the adhesion between them reached the 5B high level.Moreover,the 3D components could support the thermal cycling test from-55℃ to 125℃ for more than 100 cycles.Particularly,the application of a hydrophobic coating on the FDM-printed PEEK before LAM can promote an ideal catalytic selectivity on its surface,not affected by the inevitable printing borders and pores in the FDM-printed parts,then making the resolution of the electroless plated copper lines improved significantly.In consequence,Cu lines with width and spacing of only60μm and 100μm were obtained on both as-printed and after-polished PEEK substrates.Finally,the potential of this technique to fabricate 3D conformal electronics was demonstrated.

Effect of rotation angle on surface morphology, microstructure, and mechanical properties of Inconel 718 alloy fabricated by high power laser powder bed fusion

Rotation angle of the laser scan direction between two adjacent layers is a key controlling parameter during the high-power (≥ 1 kW) laser powder bed fusion (HP-LPBF) process. This study investigates the influences of rotation angles (θ = 0°, 45°, 90°, 105°) on the surface morphology, microstructure, and mechanical properties of Inconel 718 (IN718) alloy produced by HP-LPBF. Results show that adopting low rotation angles (e.g., 0° and 45°) is prone to relatively poor surface finish and lack-of-fusion defects, whereas adopting high rotation angles (e.g., 90° and 105°) induces smaller surface roughness and better relative density. Each case reveals a noticeable edge effect but the maximal heights witness a downward trend with the increase of rotation angle. There are some minor differences in the primary dendrite arm spacing and grain morphology by varying the rotation angles. Moreover, the tensile property is slightly enhanced as the rotation angle increases. The present work suggests that high rotation angles like 90° and 105° would probably be more favorable for the 1 kW HP-LPBF process than rotation angles with relatively low values.