A 3D printing technology has been developed and can produce curved and flexible electronics circuits, according to the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea.

SEM images of 3D pillar structures, including UNIST-shaped array of Cu and circular anthracene walls. Source: UNISTUNIST says that a group of scientists were successful in imprinting 0.001 millimeter ultra-fine patterns on plastic circuit boards at room temperature. They say this technology could be used to build flexible, wearable technology.

Park Jang-Ung, a UNIST professor leading the project, says the electronics industry will be able to produce 3D electronic circuits with more diverse designs. "The existing ultra-fine pattern production methods in semiconductor manufacturing procedure had difficulties in reproducing 3D patterns. But the new technology can realize it in high resolution," Jang-Ung says. "We believe the technology has set a new paradigm for research using 3D printing and wearable electronic devices."

3D printing to produce electronic circuits has been slow to evolve because existing 3D printers could only produce low-resolution results. The research team says it has been unable to imprint ultra-fine patterns thinner than 0.01 mm. They say it also has been impossible to imprint on metallic or plastic materials because printing procedures were done at a high temperature.

Jang-Ung says this technology, dubbed "3D electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing," can produce ultra-fine patterns as thin as 0.001 mm, improving the maximum printing resolution 50 times greater than before. It also lowered the printing temperature to work at room temperature.