Optical In-Situ Verification of 3D-Printed Electronic Circuits

Abstract

With 3D-Printing becoming a mainstream technology in industry, the need for online process inspection and quality control arises. In this paper, we propose an approach for optical inspection of fused deposition modeling (FDM) printing with integrated electronics. Our prototype setup combines a traditional FDM extruder with an additional extruder for conductive ink, a vacuum pick-and-place nozzle, and two cameras for object alignment and process control. We describe the camera setup, show typical printing faults encountered on our system, and explain our computer vision algorithms to detect (and repair) those faults. We also describe the integration of the inspection modules into existing slicing- and 3D-printsoftware.