Thermoformed Circuit Boards: Fabrication of highly conductive freeform 3D printed circuit boards with heat bending
This enables HCI researchers to create inexpensive, accessible freeform electronics, though it is incremental as it builds on existing conductive filament and CAD tools.
The paper tackles the problem of fabricating highly conductive freeform 3D printed circuit boards for high-current applications by introducing Thermoformed Circuit Boards (TCB), which use thermoformability and copper electroplating to achieve double-sided, rigid designs with various shapes and electrical characteristics.
Fabricating 3D printed electronics using desktop printers has become more accessible with recent developments in conductive thermoplastic filaments. Because of their high resistance and difficulties in printing traces in vertical directions, most applications are restricted to capacitive sensing. In this paper, we introduce Thermoformed Circuit Board (TCB), a novel approach that employs the thermoformability of the 3D printed plastics to construct various double-sided, rigid and highly conductive freeform circuit boards that can withstand high current applications through copper electroplating. To illustrate the capability of the TCB, we showcase a range of examples with various shapes, electrical characteristics and interaction mechanisms. We also demonstrate a new design tool extension to an existing CAD environment that allows users to parametrically draw the substrate and conductive trace, and export 3D printable files. TCB is an inexpensive and highly accessible fabrication technique intended to broaden HCI researcher participation.