Microheater Array Powder Sintering for Additive Manufacturing

Student: Michael Lynn

Degree: M.S., May 2022

Major Professor: Dr. Wenchao Zhou

Research Area(s):

Microelectronic-Photonic Materials & Devices

Energy Materials & Devices

View Research Quadslide

Background/Relevance

  • SLS is slow, expensive, unreliable, and hard to scale.

  • MAPS uses a microheater array as energy source to offer scalability, ~1000s of microheaters VS single point laser

  • MAPS print heads are cheap to produce, thick film processing, disposable

  • Order of magnitude less power consumption.

  • Microheaters offer closed loop control through self sensing of temperature.

 

Innovation

  • Develop a new method of fabricating a large microheater array.

Approach

  • Build reliable large scale microheater array
  • Characterize TCR and I/V characteristics in air, helium, and cold plasma
  • Model heat transfer across various media into nanoparticle materials, characterize real world behavior and validate model.
  • Prototype MAPS printer with improved print head and apply validated model to predict performance and create new standards for AM.

Key Results

  • Designing and manufacturing large area microheater array
  • Developing improved printer control and scanning calorimetry
  • Moving toward commercialization with NSF I-Corps

Conclusions

  • Plan to overcome the requirement of a small air gap problem by scaling heater array and improving repeatability.

  • Plan to improve microheater lifetime without increasing cost through thick film processing

  • Plan to demonstrate commercial viability through MVP development and demonstration of industrially useful prints.

Future Work

  • Develop scanning calorimetry standards for various materials

  • Build HTCC heater arrays and push reliable operating temperature to 1600-2000 °C