University of Michigan

Kira Barton

Lai Yu Leo Tse

Ethan John McMillan

Max Shtein

Neil P Dasgupta

Brian Iezzi

Zahra Afkhami Kheirabadi

Mattison Rose

Orlando Trejo

Lauren Ransohoff

Ellis Herman

Zhuoqing Morley Mao

Hyunwoo Park

Tae Han Cho

Eric Kazyak

Yikai Lin

Dawn M Tilbury

Tse Lai Yu Leo

Carli Huber

Efe Balta

Andre Brooks

Christopher P Pannier

Tae H Cho

Sunil Kapila

A spatial atomic layer deposition apparatus that includes a depositor head having an active surface configured to discharge a flow of a first precursor gas, a flow of a second precursor gas, and a flow of an inert gas that separates the flow of the first precursor gas and the flow of the second precursor gas, a substrate plate that opposes the depositor head and has a support surface for retaining a build substrate, a plurality of gap detection sensors producing an output signal indicative of a distance between the active surface of the depositor head and the support surface of the substrate plate, and a controller that communicates with the plurality of gap detection sensors. The gap detection sensors permit a spatial orientation of the active surface of the depositor head and the support surface of the substrate plate to be determined in real-time and monitored.

Mechatronic spatial atomic layer deposition system with closed-loop feedback control of parallelism and component alignment

An electrohydrodynamic printer has a self-cleaning extractor that can cleaning itself during printing. The extractor can be in the form of a metal block or a metal rod along which a layer of cleaning fluid flows from a source of cleaning fluid to a collector. The surface of the extractor along which the cleaning fluid flows can be adjustable between horizontal and any other angle. The self-cleaning extractor eliminates the need to interrupt e-jet printing cycles to clean stray printing fluid from the extractor by continuously keeping the extractor clean during ink extraction and printing.

Electrohydrodynamic printer with self-cleaning extractor

A printer is configured to provide a stream of extraction gas that extracts a printing fluid from a printing nozzle. An electrode produces an electric field that accelerates the extracted printing fluid toward a printing substrate. The printer can be configured to selectively turn the electric field and the stream of extraction gas off and on to enable printing in a gas-extraction mode, an e-assisted gas-extraction mode, or an e-jet mode. The stream of gas can be provided by a second nozzle concentric with the printing nozzle, and the electrode can be part of the second nozzle. A third nozzle can discharge a focusing gas around the extracted printing fluid.

Printer with gas extraction of printing fluid from printing nozzle

A printer includes a nozzle from which a stream of printing fluid is electrostatically extracted and directed toward a printing surface. A diverter can selectively interrupt the stream of printing fluid so that at least some of the extracted printing fluid is not deposited on the printing surface. Another stream of printing fluid can be extracted from another nozzle in a different direction from the first. Respective diverters can selectively and independently interrupt each stream of printing fluid to control which portions of the extracted fluids are deposited over the printing surface. Diverted printing fluid can be collected and reused. The diverters allow for a more constant or uniform extraction field while permitting selective deposition of ink droplets similar to drop-on-demand printing schemes.

Multi-nozzle electrohydrodynamic printing with diverters

A printer having: an ink nozzle; an extractor laterally spaced from the ink nozzle; a plurality of gas nozzles arranged around the ink nozzle; and three modes of operation, including an electrohydrodynamic mode, an aerodynamic mode, and a combined mode. The modes operate as follows: a voltage is applied across the ink nozzle and the extractor in the electrohydrodynamic mode; a jet of gas is discharged from each of the gas nozzles in the aerodynamic mode; and the voltage is applied and the jets of gas are discharged in the combined mode.

Combined electrohydrodynamic and aerosol printing

A method of fabricating a thin film structure includes printing, using an electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing apparatus, a first layer comprising a first liquid ink, such that the first layer is supported by a substrate, curing the first layer; printing, using the e-jet printing apparatus, a second layer comprising a second liquid ink, such that the second layer is supported by the first layer, and curing the second layer.

Electrohydrodynamic jet printed photonic devices

A printer is configured to provide a jet of extraction gas that extracts a printing fluid from a printing nozzle in the presence of an electric field that accelerates the extracted printing fluid toward a printing substrate. The printer is also configured to selectively turn the electric field and the jet of extraction gas off and on to enable printing in gas-extraction mode, an e-assisted gas-extraction mode, or an e-jet mode. The jet of gas can be provided by a second nozzle concentric with the printing nozzle. A third nozzle can discharge a focusing gas around the extracted printing fluid.

Today, product developers with customized small batch production needs come across the problem of finding capable and flexible manufacturers, while manufacturers face underutilization due to inconsistent demand. In this disclosure, a digital manufacturing framework is presented to address the challenge of matching the underutilized manufacturers with the new product developers. This disclosure presents a Production as a Service (PaaS) framework to connect users (consumers or product developers) who have customized small batch manufacturing needs, with manufacturers that have existing underutilized resources. PaaS is a cloud-based, centralized framework based on a service oriented architecture (SOA) that abstracts the manufacturing steps of a product as individual (production) service requests. PaaS creates a market place for small-to-mid sized manufacturing industry by coordinating multiple manufacturers to provide the requested services. Using PaaS, the user is able to reach many capable manufacturers at once, and receive quotations for the production request. On the other end, PaaS reduces the effort required to find new customers and enables manufacturers to easily submit quotations to increase the utilization of their resources.

Centralized framework for small batch manufacturing

An electrohydrodynamic print head includes a plurality of nozzles and a common electrode. Separately controllable electrostatic fields between the common electrode and each nozzle are provided. The common electrode can also shield adjacent electrostatic fields from each other. Each nozzle can be associated with separately controllable gas flow fields and separately back pressures. The print head enables simultaneous e-jet printing of different printing fluids and/or different resolutions. The print head may be part of a printing system with interchangeable cartridges. Each cartridge has multiple nozzles, and printing fluid extraction parameters can be made separately controllable for each nozzle.

Multi-nozzle electrohydrodynamic printing

An integrated electrohydrodynamic jet printing and spatial atomic layer deposition system for conducting nanofabrication includes an electrohydrodynamic jet printing station that includes an E-jet printing nozzle, a spatial atomic layer deposition station that includes a zoned ALD precursor gas distributor that discharges linear zone-separated first and second ALD precursor gases, a heatable substrate plate supported on a motion actuator controllable to move the substrate plate in three dimensions, and a conveyor on which the motion actuator is supported. The conveyor is operative to move the motion actuator between the electrohydrodynamic jet printing station and the spatial atomic layer deposition station so that the substrate plate is conveyable between a printing window of the E-jet printing nozzle and a deposition window of the zoned ALD precursor gas distributor, respectively. A method of conducting area-selective atomic layer deposition is also disclosed.

Integrated electrohydrodynamic jet printing and spatial atomic layer deposition system for area selective-atomic layer deposition

A print nozzle assembly is presented for use in a printer. The print nozzle assembly may include: a printing pin; a wetting mechanism associated with the printing pin, and an ink retraction mechanism integrated into the wetting mechanism. The wetting mechanism includes an ink reservoir with an outlet arranged in close proximity to a tip of the printing pin. The ink retraction mechanism is configured to retract ink away from the outlet of the ink reservoir.

Multi-nozzle print head assembly with ink retraction mechanism

A print head assembly for printing an ink on a substrate having a printing pin member having a tip; a wetting system having an ink reservoir, the wetting system being configured to transfer ink from the ink reservoir to the tip of the printing pin member; and a charging system operably coupled to the printing pin member, the charging system configured to apply a high voltage charge to the printing pin member resulting in the ink on the tip of the printing pin member to be deposited upon the substrate.

Rapidly-wetted pin-style electro-hydrodynamic jet print head

A 3D printing system configured to embed and orient reinforcing fibers in a printable matrix material in at least three directions, wherein at least one of the directions is non-parallel with a plane defined by two other of the directions. The 3D printing system may be configured to deposit a layer of printable non-metallic material along a printing path on a contoured printing surface to form a 3D printed article. The system can carry out a method of 3D printing a fiber-reinforced article that includes the steps of: depositing a plurality of layers of printable matrix material one over another to define a three-dimensional shape of the article; and embedding a reinforcing fiber in the printable matrix material during the step of depositing, with the reinforcing fiber extending into more than one of the plurality of material layers.

Fiber-reinforced 3D printing

A printing device includes a nozzle and an extractor. An electrostatic extraction field is generated at the extractor and at a discharge opening of the nozzle to extract polarized ink from the nozzle for deposition on a printing substrate. The extractor includes an electrically conductive portion for application of one side of a voltage potential to generate the electrostatic field. The extractor can be in the form of an extractor plate with an opening through which the extracted ink passes, or the extractor can be in the form of another nozzle. The printing device provides a directionality field that affects the trajectory of the extracted ink. The directionality field can include the electrostatic field or a gas flow field. The printing device is useful for electrohydrodynamic jet, or e-jet, printing on a non-conductive substrate.

Growing community of inventors

Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Kira Barton