Dynamics and Feedback Control of Electrospinning Processes

Abstract

Due to its superb flexibility, efficiency, and tractility, flexible electronic production is widely used in the manufacturing of thin-film solar cells, microscale sensors, high-resolution displayers, illumination equipments, and integrated artificial tissues. Electrospinning is an essential procedure in flexible electronic production, where a microscale/nanoscale fiber is dragged from a Taylor cone by a static electrical field power and afterward be deposited onto a flexible substrate. In this brief, we established a closed-loop control system of electrospinning processes composed of a high-speed camera, an National Instruments (NI) image processor, an NI controller, a control signal amplifier, and a high-voltage static electricity supplier. It is the first time to apply model predictive control on practical electrospinning processes to modulate the diameter of electrospinning fiber subject to external disturbances and uncertainties. Extensive experimental results have shown that the fiber diameter becomes tunable and stabilized by the closed-loop controller, which is beneficial to enhance the consistency and controllability of the microelectrical elements. More significantly, the adjustability of fiber diameter enables the manufacturing of more specified structures like island–bridge microstructure widely used in microscale sensors and electrical unit manufacturing and tissue engineering.