Fabrication of Parts with Integrated Circuits by Selective Electroless Plating of Additively Manufactured Plastic Substr
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Fabrication of Parts with Integrated Circuits by Selective Electroless Plating of Additively Manufactured Plastic Substrates Seonyeop Kim1 · Inhwan Lee2 · Hochan Kim3 Received: 5 March 2020 / Revised: 20 July 2020 / Accepted: 26 July 2020 © Korean Society for Precision Engineering 2020
Abstract The use of printed circuit boards (PCBs) has become essential in manufacturing parts with electronic functions. However, the placement of PCBs inside a product requires special plates or fixtures that need to be separately designed, fabricated, and assembled. In addition, PCB manufacturing generally utilizes various toxic metals and etchants. Thus, there is a need to address the issues of space, cost, and environmental toxicity inherent in PCBs. This paper proposes a novel method of fabricating PCB-free part with electronic circuits in a set using the casing or exterior of a product. This process enables the manufacturing of a type of molded interconnect device without conventional molding technologies by directly forming conductive circuits on the side or back of 3D-printed substrates using selective electroless plating. For 3D printing of the product structure, this study uses substrates made of polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which are commonly used in the popular material-extrusion 3D printing technology. As ABS and PLA have different chemical properties, the region to be plated with the electrical circuit is fabricated using ABS, whereas the remaining substrate is fabricated using PLA. ABS was chemically treated to allow electroless plating. A process for forming 3D circuits was developed and evaluated by selective electroless plating of the areas of the substrate requiring circuitry. To verify the applicability of the proposed process, circuits and integrated parts used in the industry were redesigned into a single component and fabricated by applying the proposed process. The results demonstrate that the proposed process has good practical applicability. Furthermore, it has low environmental toxicity with low requirements for material consumption and processing energy. Keywords 3D printing · Additive manufacturing · Electroless plating · Electronic circuit · Selective plating activation
1 Introduction With progress in industrial development, studies on miniaturized, lightweight, and high-performance electronic products are continuously being conducted. In keeping with this trend, the manufacturing technology of printed circuit boards (PCBs), which include electronic circuits and are used to control electronic products, is rapidly developing as well. In PCBs, a conductive circuit is formed on top of * Hochan Kim [email protected] 1
Sungbo P&T LTD, Hwaseong‑si, Gyeonggi‑do, South Korea
2
School of Mechanical Engineering, Chungbuk National University, Chungdae‑ro 1, Seowon‑Gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk 28644, South Korea
3
Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Andong National University, Andong, Gyeongsangb
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