Adding a pinch of cellulose to a silver-based ink enables production of high-quality radio frequency components using 3D printing. Inkjet printers that build complex 3D objects layer-by-layer are usually restricted to using acrylic-based inks. Now, Garret McKerricher and his colleagues at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have developed a way to incorporate metallic layers into 3D polymer objects for use in devices. Mixing cellulose with liquid organometallic precursors yielded the correct viscosity for reliable jetting and improves adhesion properties of the ink. Once printed, the silver ink was transformed into a stable, smooth layer using quick infrared curing. Multilayer, high-definition printing generated insulator-metallic prototypes capable of acting as capacitors and inductors. Their subsequent assembly into a low-pass filter yielded a device with signal quality comparable to commercial filters.
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