3D printed active objects based on the promising PEDOT: PSS resin: Investigation of their integration inside an electronic circuit

Nowadays, the interest in the additive manufacturing (AM) field is not only from a technological point of view, but also from a materials perspective. The advantages of printing functional parts allowed the transition from AM intended as mere prototypes factory, to complete production process for small batches of highly customized devices. Especially for micrometric devices, the best solution in terms of material can be found in photo-sensitive polymers. This study was focused on finding the best way to make stereolithography (SL) printed conductive parts easily embeddable in an electronic circuit. A SL resin containing the electrically conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) was considered for its interesting property to behave like an electrochemical transistor in proper conditions. Different standard metal plating techniques were evaluated to find out the best one for the present case study. After metallization, samples were electrically characterized to find out conductivity values. Electroplating turned out to be a valid solution, generating a metal layer on the surface without damaging the printed part and enhancing the electric contact. The reported outcomes pave the way for further studies on polymeric parts welding, which often represents a bottleneck in polymeric device integration in electronic circuits.