A Print-Form-Sinter process for manufacturing 3D electronics on complex surfaces

Circuits that conform to 3D surfaces enable advanced multifunctionality, miniaturization, and lightweighting. But existing manufacturing methods suffer from a tradeoff between geometric complexity, electrical performance, and throughput. This work addresses this gap by integrating printing, forming, and sintering of nanowire-based metal circuits. Experiments show the ability to go beyond the above tradeoff by achieving 30–100% greater geometric complexity and 10 times greater throughput than the state-of-the-art without significant loss in electrical performance. A multiscale multiphysical model is created to link nanowire behavior to spatial resistivity evolution, thus revealing key process physics and creating the basis for rational process control.