MIT takes big step towards fully 3D-printed active electronics

By producing semiconductor-free logic gates that can be used to perform calculations, MIT researchers hope to simplify the manufacture of electronics. This development could decentralize electronics manufacturing and make it more accessible to businesses, labs and homes.

Active electronic components control electrical signals and are traditionally based on semiconductors, which have to be manufactured in clean rooms. The global shortage of semiconductor manufacturing facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic has led to bottlenecks and rising costs in the electronics industry. The ability to print complete active electronic devices without semiconductors offers a potential solution to these challenges.

“This technology has real legs. While we cannot compete with silicon as a semiconductor, our idea is not to necessarily replace what is existing, but to push 3D printing technology into uncharted territory. In a nutshell, this is really about democratizing technology. This could allow anyone to create smart hardware far from traditional manufacturing centers,” says Luis Fernando Velásquez-García, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) and senior author of a paper describing the devices, which appears in Virtual and Physical Prototyping.

The researchers used standard 3D printing equipment and an inexpensive, biodegradable material to create fuses that perform similar switching functions to transistors. These fuses can perform simple control tasks, such as regulating the speed of electric motors.

“We saw that this was something that could help take 3D printing hardware to the next level. It offers a clear way to provide some degree of ‘smart’ to an electronic device. For now, that is our best explanation, but that is not the full answer because that doesn’t explain why it only happened in this combination of materials. We need to do more research, but there is no doubt that this phenomenon is real,” he says.

The researchers plan to further develop the technology to realize more complex circuits and improve the performance of the printed components.

“This paper demonstrates that active electronic devices can be made using extruded polymeric conductive materials. This technology enables electronics to be built into 3D printed structures. An intriguing application is on-demand 3D printing of mechatronics on board spacecraft,” says Roger Howe, the William E. Ayer Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, at Stanford University, who was not involved with this work.