Alberto Piqué: Printing Hybrid Electronics by Laser Direct-Write

The use of laser direct-write (LDW) techniques for printing functional materials for a wide-range of applications is growing as additive manufacturing or AM becomes more established. With LDW, precise control of a wide range of processing steps - from subtractive to additive - is possible over a wide range of scales with an extensive materials palette.

These non-lithographic processes constitute some of the earliest demonstrations of 3D printing or AM at the microscale. In this plenary talk, Alberto Piqué of the US Naval Research Lab reviews the current status of micro-fabrication processes based on LDW, such as laser-induced forward transfer or LIFT, and their use to fabricate "hybrid" structures comprising both printed and embedded electronic components.

These examples illustrate the role that LDW is poised to play in the additive micro-fabrication of hybrid circuits for the development of the next generation of 3D printed electronics.

This work was funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) through the Naval Research Laboratory Basic Research Program.

Alberto Piqué is the Head of the Materials and Systems Branch in the Materials Science Division at the Naval Research Laboratory. Dr. Piqué and his group have pioneered the use of laser-based direct-write techniques for the rapid prototyping of electronic, sensor and micro-power generation devices. He is a Fellow of SPIE and APS, and to date his research has resulted in over 200 scientific publications and 21 patents.