The electrodeposition of rhenium on to a metal seed layer on flexible substrates is presented as a means to creating superconducting flexible cable connectors in an enabling plug-and-play approach for quantum computing. Cryogenic quantum electronics are currently connected using masses of stainless-steel coaxial cables that are bulky, rigid - both in form and design - and lead to significant joule heating, thermal noise, and cross talk. Here, we present an unprecedented approach to integrate an aerosol jet printed (AJP) metal seed layer with rhenium electrodeposition on a flexible substrate in the advancement of superconducting interconnect technologies. Silver and gold were printed using the ‘Nanojet’ aerosol jet printer on Kapton films. Adhesion of gold was found to be far superior to that of silver and adhesion on roughened Kapton surpassed that of its smooth counterpart. Electrodeposition of rhenium was successful on both silver and gold and an amorphous Re film was confirmed by XRD. Results for both materials are presented however due to the poor adhesion of silver to Kapton it was ruled out as a viable candidate. Composite materials were characterized by profilometry, EDS, XRD and FIBSEM. Electrical measurements of the composite at ambient temperature showed a critical temperature (Tc), where the resistance drops to 0, of 5.8 K, well above 4.2 K, the temperature of liquid helium. Stress-strain tests of the Ag-Re and Au-Re composites on roughened and smooth Kapton were completed. Cyclic flexure testing (200 cycles) to 1.25% strain showed smooth Kapton samples reach a stress of ~16 MPa, while Kapton roughened with sandpaper, reaches ~20MPa of stress for the same 1.25% strain.
Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) is one technique of additive manufacturing used in the printing of electronics components. AJP enables the patterning of features at the ∼10 μm-100 μm scale based on hardware and print parameters. Optimization of print conditions enables the printing of high-resolution features with linewidths approaching 10 μm. The aerosol jet printing of electronic parts can be limited by the conductivities which are achievable by Ag nanoparticle inks (typically 15%-25% of bulk Ag). For certain electronics applications, the increased conductivity produces unacceptable loses during operation and methods are needed to increase the conductance of the devices without sacrificing resolution. Here, we report on the AJP of inductor spirals conductor traces of linewidth 50 μm separated by 55 μm gaps. The conductivity of these features is enhanced by electrodeposition of Cu onto the Ag, resulting in a decrease in resistance of 35-45x. Impedance measurements demonstrate that the addition of Cu by electrodeposition to a 27-turn spiral inductor resulted in an inductance of 3.6 μH. Finally, we demonstrate the use of a lift-off process to produce free-standing, flexible, conductive films using AJP.
Stereolithography (SL) is a process that uses photosensitive polymer solutions to create 3D parts in a layer by layer approach. Sandia National Labs is interested in using SL for the printing of ceramic loaded resins, namely alumina, that we are formulating here at the labs. One of the most important aspects for SL printing of ceramics is the properties of the slurry itself. The work presented here will focus on the use of a novel commercially available low viscosity resin provided by Colorado Photopolymer Solutions, CPS 2030, and a Hypermer KD1 dispersant from Croda. Two types of a commercially available alumina powder, Almatis A16 SG and Almatis A15 SG, are compared to determine the effects that the size and the distribution of the powder have on the loading of the solution using rheology. The choice of a low viscosity resin allows for a high particle loading, which is necessary for the printing of high density parts using a commercial SL printer. The Krieger-Dougherty equation was used to evaluate the maximum particle loading for the system. This study found that a bimodal distribution of micron sized powder (A15 SG) reduced the shear thickening effects caused by hydroclusters, and allows for the highest alumina powder loading. A final sintered density of 90% of the theoretical density of alumina was achieved based on the optimized formulation and printing conditions.
Additive manufacturing of ceramic materials is an attractive technique for rapid prototyping of components at small scales and low cost. We have investigated the printing of alumina pastes loaded at 70-81.5 wt% solids in a UV curable resin. These can be deposited by extrusion from a syringe head on a Hyrel System 30M printer. The print head is equipped with an array of UV LEDs, which solidify the paste without the need for any applied heating. Parameters optimized include print speed, layer height, applied force, and deposition rate. Using A15 alumina and submicron A16 powder precursors, we can achieve bulk densities of 91% and 96% of theoretical density respectively. The influence of dispersants and surfactants added to the powder on the rheology of the pastes, the print process parameters, and the quality of the final components are also investigated.
Recent advances in additive manufacturing technologies present opportunities for rethinking the design and fabrication of electronic components. An area of considerable interest for electronic printing is the production of multi-layered, multi-material passive components. This research focuses on the design and fabrication of a toroidal microinductor using a digital, direct-write printing platform. The toroidal inductor has a three layer design with a dielectric and core material printed in between the lower and upper halves of the conductive coil. The results of this work are discussed, including printer, ink, and processing requirements to successfully print the multi-layer, multi-material component. The inductance of several successful printed devices is measured and compared to predicted values. Overall, the results and lessons of this work provide guidance for future work in this growing field.
This SAND report fulfills the final report requirement for the Born Qualified Grand Challenge LDRD. Born Qualified was funded from FY16-FY18 with a total budget of ~$13M over the 3 years of funding. Overall 70+ staff, Post Docs, and students supported this project over its lifetime. The driver for Born Qualified was using Additive Manufacturing (AM) to change the qualification paradigm for low volume, high value, high consequence, complex parts that are common in high-risk industries such as ND, defense, energy, aerospace, and medical. AM offers the opportunity to transform design, manufacturing, and qualification with its unique capabilities. AM is a disruptive technology, allowing the capability to simultaneously create part and material while tightly controlling and monitoring the manufacturing process at the voxel level, with the inherent flexibility and agility in printing layer-by-layer. AM enables the possibility of measuring critical material and part parameters during manufacturing, thus changing the way we collect data, assess performance, and accept or qualify parts. It provides an opportunity to shift from the current iterative design-build-test qualification paradigm using traditional manufacturing processes to design-by-predictivity where requirements are addressed concurrently and rapidly. The new qualification paradigm driven by AM provides the opportunity to predict performance probabilistically, to optimally control the manufacturing process, and to implement accelerated cycles of learning. Exploiting these capabilities to realize a new uncertainty quantification-driven qualification that is rapid, flexible, and practical is the focus of this effort.
The permittivity, dielectric loss, and DC dielectric breakdown strength of additively manufactured, solvent-cast, and commercial polyimide films are reported As expected, commercial films performed better than both AM and solvent-cast lab-made films. Solvent-cast films generally performed better than AM films, although performance depended on the optimization of the material for the specific deposition technique. The most significant degradation of performance in all the lab-made films was in the dispersion of both the x/Df measurements and the dielectric breakdown strength (Weibull β). Commercial films had a breakdown strength of 4891 kV/cm and β = 13.0 whereas the highest performing lab-made films had a breakdown strength of 4072 kV/cm and β = 3.8. Furthermore, this increase in dispersion in all the lab-made samples is attributed to higher variability in the preparation, a higher defect level related to fabrication in the lab environment and, for some AM samples, to morphology/topology features resulting from the deposition technique.
This late-start LDRD was focused on the application of chemical principles of self-assembly on the ordering and placement of photovoltaic cells in a module. The drive for this chemical-based self-assembly stems from the escalating prices in the 'pick-and-place' technology currently used in the MEMS industries as the size of chips decreases. The chemical self-assembly principles are well-known on a molecular scale in other material science systems but to date had not been applied to the assembly of cells in a photovoltaic array or module. We explored several types of chemical-based self-assembly techniques, including gold-thiol interactions, liquid polymer binding, and hydrophobic-hydrophilic interactions designed to array both Si and GaAs PV chips onto a substrate. Additional research was focused on the modification of PV cells in an effort to gain control over the facial directionality of the cells in a solvent-based environment. Despite being a small footprint research project worked on for only a short time, the technical results and scientific accomplishments were significant and could prove to be enabling technology in the disruptive advancement of the microelectronic photovoltaics industry.