Marcelino Essien

Flow- and Laser-Guided Direct Write of Electronic and Biological Components

Laser-guided direct writing is an emerging technology for high-throughput deposition of micrometer and submicrometer sized particles. It is a process developed for direct writing electronic components and mechanical structures with extreme accuracies and in a maskless process. Laser-guided direct writing is a simple system that can be set up at low cost and deposit virtually any material with micrometer scale accuracy such as ceramics, oxides, and biological materials. The intriguing potential of direct-write technologies is to enable the combination of todays disparate electronics manufacturing processes into an integrated production system. This system can manufacture the printed circuit board and necessary components, and can perform the packaging and assembly functions, thus eliminating many costly steps and serving as the gateway to three dimensional electronic systems and hybrid electronic or biological systems. The chapter summarizes recent results including micron-scale deposition techniques, material developments, laser treatments of various metals and dielectrics, and component performance.