How 3D Printing Subverting PCB Production

Technology is changing with each passing day, and many impossible things have become possible, and 3D printing is one of them. And 3D printing is not only used to print general daily necessities, PCB can also be printed.

China already has advanced technology in this area, and Beijing Mengzhimo is a representative of it. Dream Ink is a kind of liquid metal ink. The ink can conduct electricity. It can be printed out accurately by putting it in a 3D printer. This technology breaks the bottleneck and barriers of electronic manufacturing technology, allowing the printer to quickly and freely make electronic circuits at low cost.

The Saudi Arabian research team has also developed a new technology to print circuit boards on flexible stickers. This technology is based on silicon material and stores the entire electronic circuit system inside. This is a perfect combination of circuit manufacturing and processing technology and additive manufacturing technology.

This technology includes three different manufacturing technologies: 3D printing technology for packaging materials; inkjet printing technology based on nano-scale molecular silver ink; precision winding and alignment technology that combines electronic circuits with the surface of the object. The combination of the three technologies can produce a flexible circuit without losing its original performance, on the contrary, it is more flexible and easy to bend, and the cost is lower.

Other circuit board 3D printers include: Germany’s NexD1, which can hold six ink cartridges at a time and mix different materials, such as conductive resin, etc. This resin can be printed on the same conductive circuit board as a standard PCB. The DragonFly 2020 3D printer in cooperation between Israel and the United States brings together a precise inkjet deposition system, advanced nanochemistry and advanced software printing technology, which can easily print PCBs at a lower cost and faster printing.

Circuit boards are an important part of the electronics industry, and every electronic device needs to use circuit boards. The traditional manufacturing method requires complicated steps such as high-temperature copper film evaporation and chemical reagent etching, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly. Now using 3D printing, it can be achieved easily.

XPCB Limited is a manufacturer specializing in the production of high-precision double-sided, multi-layer and impedance, blind buried vias, and thick copper circuit boards. The products cover HDI, thick copper, backplanes, rigid-flex combined, buried capacitance and buried resistance, Golden Finger and other types of circuit boards, which can meet the needs of customers for various products.