Localised Broadband Curing of Directly Written Inks for the Production of Electrical Devices for Aerospace Applications

Direct Write (DW) technologies afford the possibility of printing electronics and sensors directly onto structural components. This allows advantageous weight saving by making good use of available space through conformal printing whilst adding functionality. To enable DW fabrication of devices onto large aerospace structures a localised processing method is required. This paper investigates the feasibility of using a broadband thermal spot curing system for processing DW Inkjet and Polymer Thick Film (PTF) materials onto composite structures. The characteristics of spot cured tracks were compared to conventional oven cured tracks and were shown to exhibit equivalent resistances.