Evaluation of commercially-available conductive filaments for 3D printing flexible circuits on paper

Abstract

Three commercially-available conductive filaments were evaluated for 3D printing flexible circuits on paper. While all three filaments were printed successfully, the resulting conductive traces were found to have significantly different impedances when characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Using a graphite-doped polylactic acid filament, the flexibility of paper-based conductive traces was evaluated, methods of integrating common electrical and electronic components with the conductive traces were demonstrated, and the resistive heating of the traces was characterized. The ability to 3D print conductive traces on paper using commercially available materials opens many opportunities for rapid prototyping of flexible electronics and for integrating electronic circuits with paper-based microfluidic devices.