Fabrication and prototypes

The emergent technologies and new materials employed fro the modern devices require the development of new fabrication high resolution processes at the aim to gain versatility, reliable products but produced with affordable cost. In the recent years new fabrication methods have been invented overcoming the traditional processes. Those emerging techniques are mainly based on direct on-demand process. Different classes of techniques have been exploited in relation to the method used for the dispensing process of the material. 3D-printing, ink-jet printing, electrospinning, elettro-spray, additive manufacturing, are just few of the possible methods of printing. All those approaches have some significant advantages in terms of speed, simplicity, energy saving, green-process. The dispensing approaches are direct and simple, they don't require molds, masks and multi-steps lithographic processes and could be used for the direct printing of composite materials. Nowadays composite materials are a fundamental component in a lot of industrial devices (biomedical devices, solar cells, flexible electronics, aerospace industry) and they can be printed directly by additive manufacturing and 3D printing. It is also important to consider that ink-jet printing enable the direct, additive patterning of new materials with a resolution that can extend below 100 nm to provide unique opportunities not only in scientific studies but also in a range of applications that includes printed electronics, tissue engineering, and photonic and plasmonic devices obtained by direct printing from polymer solutions could offer interesting advantages like easy fabrication approach and the use of sustainable/user-friendly materials. High definition displays, photovoltaic devices, semiconductor solar cells, light emitting diodes, sensor, biochemical assays and wearable electronics offer just an example of the considerable extension of interest for the micro-technologies industries. Techniques for fabricating structures on surfaces at micrometer and nanometer length scales are critically important to many existing and emerging technologies. The electronics industry has been the strongest driver for the development of lithographic methods as routes to dense integrated circuits that combine different materials and structures patterned at high resolution and with precise registration on semiconductor wafers.