THREE-DIMENSION PRINTING SYSTEM INCLUDING SEMICONDUCTOR OBJECT INCORPORATION DEVICE

• US 20070195150A1
• Filed: 04/23/2007
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3D Systems, Inc. (3D Systems Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Limited
• Inventors: Silverbrook, Kia
• Granted Patent: US 7,706,909 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 347/107
• CPC Class Codes: B05C 5/0212 only at particular parts of the articles at particular part of web, band, strip, belt or ribbon B05C5/025
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 10/10 Formation of a green body
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 12/20 Cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 12/53 Nozzles
• CPC Class Codes: B22F 12/70 Gas flow means
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/112 using individual droplets, e.g. from jetting heads
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 70/68 by incorporating or moulding on preformed parts, e.g. inserts or layers , e.g. foam blocks mould constructions therefor B29C33/12; joining preformed parts by moulding B29C65/70
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 10/00 Processes of additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 30/00 Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 40/00 Auxiliary operations or equipment, e.g. for material handling
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 50/02 for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 70/00 Materials specially adapted for additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 80/00 Products made by additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/002 Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0021 using irradiation
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/00214 using UV radiation
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/00216 using infrared [IR] radiation or microwaves
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0022 using convection means, e.g. by using a fan for blowing or sucking air
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0024 using conduction means, e.g. by using a heated platen
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/01 Ink jet
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 29/393 : Devices for controlling or analysing the entire machine ; Controlling or analysing mechanical parameters involving printing of test patterns
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/4073 : Printing on three-dimensional objects not being in sheet or web form, e.g. spherical or cubic objects B41J3/283, B41J3/286 take precedence; building up a 3D object using individual droplets from jetting heads B29C64/112
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/543 : with multiple inkjet print heads B41J2/17503, B41J2/2103 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/185 : Components encapsulated in the insulating substrate of the printed circuit or incorporated in internal layers of a multilayer circuit semiconductor chips encapsulated by interconnect and support structures H01L23/5389, H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/125 : by ink-jet printing
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/4664 : Adding a circuit layer by thick film methods, e.g. printing techniques or by other techniques for making conductive patterns by using pastes, inks or powders H05K3/4647 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 10/25 : Process efficiency
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 439/901 : Connector hood or shell
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49144 : by metal fusion

Abstract

A system that prints three dimensional products is provided. The system includes at least one printhead for printing material to create the printed product, and an object incorporation device. The object incorporation device incorporates inorganic semiconductor objects into cavities created during the printing process.

Claims

1. A system that prints three dimensional products, the system including:

at least one printhead for printing material to create the printed product, and

an object incorporation device that incorporates at least one inorganic semiconductor object into at least one cavity created during the printing process, the object incorporation device incorporating the at least one inorganic semiconductor object into the at least one cavity during printing of the respective product.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one cavity is created with substantially the same height as the at least one object to be inserted into the at least one cavity.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one cavity is sized so that after insertion of the object, the top of the at least one object is substantially flush with the surrounding material of the partially completed product.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one cavity is shaped to maintain at least one of the position and orientation of the at least one object.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one cavity is shaped to maintain both the position and orientation of the object.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the shape of the at least one cavity substantially matches the shape of the at least one object.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one object is connected to electrical connections printed by the system.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein a plurality of objects are inserted into one cavity.

9. The system of claim 1 being a three dimensional product creation system that prints products layer by layer, the system printing at least part of each of multiple layers simultaneously.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system includes a plurality of printheads.

11. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein each layer is defined by a plurality of voxels arranged in a regular array and wherein the voxels of each layer are printed so as to be offset by half a voxel relative to the voxels of adjacent layers in a first direction, a second direction perpendicular to the first direction or both the first and second directions.

12. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the printheads are configured to enable printing of at least two different materials in at least one layer.

13. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the printheads are configured such that at least one of the layers may be printed with a first set of materials and at least one other of the layers may be printed with a second set of materials, and wherein the first and second sets are not the same.

14. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system is configured to enable at least one first printhead that is initially configured to print at least part of a first layer to be dynamically reconfigured to print at least part of a second layer.

15. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system is configured to enable at least one first printhead that is initially configured to print at least part of a first layer to be dynamically reconfigured to print at least part of a second layer, and

wherein if at least one printhead initially configured to print the second layer fails whilst printing said second layer, said at least one first printhead is dynamically reconfigured to complete the printing of at least part of said second layer.

16. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system includes semiconductor memory and wherein data defining at least one layer is stored in the semiconductor memory.

17. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system executes a process, the system including a plurality of subsystems, each of which performs a stage of the process,

each of the subsystems configured to perform one of a first subset of N₁ of the stages, where N is greater than 1 and to change the stage of the subset being performed on receipt of a change instruction;

wherein, in the event that one of the subsystems fails, at least one of the remaining subsystems synchronously changes to performing the respective stage of the failed subsystem without requiring transfer of data relating the respective stage to the said at least one remaining subsystems, and

when a subsystem changes to performing a different stage, the system reconfigures the subsystem to be capable of performing a second subset N₂ of the stages where N₁ and N₂ have the same number of stages.

18. A system as claimed in claim 1 including a least two printheads, a first one of the printheads printing a first material and a second one of the printheads printing a second material, the first material being cured by a first method and the second material being cured by a second method and wherein the first and second methods are different.

19. A system as claimed in claim 1 including at least one printhead that prints electrical connections to the at least one object incorporated in the products.

20. A system as claimed in claim 1 including a least two printheads, wherein a first printhead is actively maintained at a first temperature and a second printhead is actively maintained at a second temperature.