Design Automation for Additive Manufactured Electronics

Electrical wiring finds application across diverse scales, ranging from single PCB setups to the expansive dimensions of automobiles or aircraft. One example for such a system is the Neurostimulation headset of Bottneuro for the therapy of Alzheimers disease. The headset is patient specific, meaning it perfectly fits its patients head and has a for this person ideal electrode positioning. The design of the patient-specific headset is done automatically based on an MRI scan generating a 3D printable file.  

In order to enable the patient-specific design, automating the mechanical design alone is not enough to establish a digital process chain from start to end. Therefore, besides the automated design of the mechanical headset shell, also the design of the external wire harness must be automated. Hereby, the wire of every electrode gets automatically connected to its closest collective wire branch which then connects all the wires it contains to the headset`s strain relief in the back, where the power supply is located.  

In recent years, in the field of AM a novel approach has been used combining conductive and non-conductive materials to directly print electrical wiring into a component. This solves many of the challenges of traditional wiring due to the automatic prevention of entanglement, no need for an assembly and weight reduction due to no insulation and the loss other now irrelevant system components. In order to achieve this, different AME processes are being developed right now. In our research, we primarily focus on the Multi-Material Fusion Depostion Modeling (FDM) Process due to its accessibility and ease of use.