Abstract
Additive and low-temperature printing processes enable the integration of diverse electronic devices, both power-supplying and power-consuming, on flexible substrates at low cost. Production of a complete electronic system from these devices, however, often requires power electronics to convert between the various operating voltages of the devices. Passive components—inductors, capacitors, and resistors—perform functions such as filtering, short-term energy storage, and voltage measurement, which are vital in power electronics and many other applications. In this paper, we present screen-printed inductors, capacitors, resistors and an RLC circuit on flexible plastic substrates, and report on the design process for minimization of inductor series resistance that enables their use in power electronics. Printed inductors and resistors are then incorporated into a step-up voltage regulator circuit. Organic light-emitting diodes and a flexible lithium ion battery are fabricated and the voltage regulator is used to power the diodes from the battery, demonstrating the potential of printed passive components to replace conventional surface-mount components in a DC-DC converter application.
Highlights
Fabrication of electronic devices and circuits by additive printing processes offers a number of advantages in terms of simplicity and cost when compared to the conventional PCB-based manufacturing techniques
We have demonstrated screen-printed inductors, capacitors, and resistors with a range of values on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates, with the goal of replacing surface-mount components in power electronics
We have shown that the resistance of the inductors, which is of great concern for power electronics, can be reduced by more than an order of magnitude by designing the spiral with large diameter, fill ratio, and line width-space width ratio, and by using a thick layer of low resistivity ink
Summary
Fabrication of electronic devices and circuits by additive printing processes offers a number of advantages in terms of simplicity and cost when compared to the conventional PCB-based manufacturing techniques. It is essential to minimize losses in passive components for power electronics, since the efficiency of the circuit directly affects the size of the energy source that is required to power a system This is challenging for printed inductors, which consist of long coils and are susceptible to high series resistance. Others focus on materials or fabrication process development and demonstrate general-purpose components that are not optimized for a particular application[26,32,33,34] Power electronic circuits such as voltage regulators, by contrast, tend to utilize larger components than the typical demonstrations of printed passives and do not require resonance, demanding different component designs. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and a flexible lithium-ion battery are fabricated, and the voltage regulator is used to power the OLEDs from the battery
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