Direct Write Laboratory

Cutting-edge research at the School of Mines is opening the avenue for new economic development opportunities. The university's Maskless Mesoscale Material Deposition, or M3D, machine is helping make this possible.

The M³D machine, located in Tech Development Lab's Direct Write Laboratory, was purchased and acquired by the school in August 2004. The United States Army Research Laboratory is the entity that funds the Direct Write Lab, at $1.5 million for two years. With this funding, the School of Mines is also acquiring two other direct write machines--nScrypt and Ink Jet. When these are installed, the School of Mines will house the three main direct write technologies, and will be the only laboratory to do so.

Special thanks go to the South Dakota Congressional delegation. Without their support, securing funding for this project would not have been possible.

According to Dr. Keith Whites, professor and Steven P. Miller Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the grant’s co-P.I., the M³D machine's main function is to deposit metal inks and other material types onto low-temperature substrates and to create electronic circuits. The machine can print at very small sizes--easily 25 microns, which is a third of the width of a human hair.

"The device is low temperature, so we print a lot of the devices we make onto plastic. And then because the plastic is flexible, we are able to print electromagnetic devices, antennas, and microwave circuits onto flexible plastic sheets, and that allows us to make devices and use them in applications where they couldn't be used before," Dr. Whites said. "For example, for the flexible antennas, you could make conformal and wearable antennas, which is one of the projects that we have with the Army."

According to Dr. Whites, something very important to the success of the M³D applications is the campus-wide collaborations that it generates. Dr. James Sears, Director, Additive Manufacturing Laboratory (AML), serves as the other Co - P.I. with Dr. Whites on the Army Research Laboratory contract. Dr. Shawn Decker, director, Center for Accelerated Applications at the Nanoscale; Dr. Ken Han, dean, Graduate Education and Distinguished and Fuerstenau professor, Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering; Dr. Jon Kellar, chair and professor Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering; Dr. Nam-Soo (Peter) Kim, research scientist I, Center for Accelerated Applications at the Nanoscale; and Dr. Whites have formed one such collaboration in the ink development team. This team also has had student involvement.

According to Dr. Kellar, these inks are not traditional inks, but rather inks based on nanoscale metals and other particles that can be deposited with the M3D machine.

"We are currently working on proposals that involve 'photo active' inks," Dr. Kellar said. "In other words, we envision being able to create inks that become activated by light. For example, one type of ink that is desired is metallic silver. We would like to develop inks that form the metal when exposed to light."

According to Dr. Whites, having an interdisciplinary collaboration such as the ink development team is very important to the research process.

"This doesn’t happen very often--all of these disciplines coming together into one project. At larger universities, it’s not uncommon to see researchers in the same department working together. Across departments--that’s virtually unheard of," Dr. Whites said. "I think that's what it takes today to make large strides into new technology. The days of the single researcher working alone in an area are over."

According to Dr. Whites, by working together across disciplines, the School of Mines has the opportunity to develop new and promising technology that will contribute to regional economic development.

"It's extraordinary. This is how you can actually make new technology," Dr. Whites said. "Technology is the application of knowledge, and I think that is something that we do very well here."

The research that is being done with the M³D machine is generating new intellectual property, such as ink formulas, which are proprietary. With new and exciting research, the path to new economic development ventures begins to open up.

"I think that there is a real potential for new commercial inks and electronic devices because of the research we are doing," Dr. Kellar said.

In fact, the opportunity to help with regional economic development was one of the things that brought Dr. Whites back to the School of Mines in 2001.

"South Dakota's impact on the national economy is negligible. South Dakota--we're not trendsetters, generally," Dr. Whites said. "But this research is trendsetting, it really is."