The performance of ultrasonic transducers is largely determined by the piezoelectric properties and geometries of their active elements. Due to the brittle nature of piezoceramics, existing processing tools for piezoelectric elements only achieve simple geometries, including flat disks, cylinders, cubes and rings. While advances in additive manufacturing give rise to free-form fabrication of piezoceramics, the resultant transducers suffer from high porosity, weak piezoelectric responses, and limited geometrical flexibility. We introduce optimized piezoceramic printing and...
Haotian Lu is a Ph.D. student majoring in Mechanical Engineering. His research focuses on applying and advancing piezoelectric material 3D printing techniques, leveraging the properties of piezoelectric materials to innovate in acoustic physics and tactile sensing applications.
Mechanical Engineering Ph.D Student in Dr. Xiaoyu 'Rayne' Zheng's Additive Manufacturing and Metamaterials laboratory. Interested in new additive manufacturing processes and printable materials.
Currently working on 3D printing of piezoelectric architected ceramics for underwater acoustic applications.
The demand for lightweight antennas in 5 G/6 G communication, wearables, and aerospace applications is rapidly growing. However, standard manufacturing techniques are limited in structural complexity and easy integration of multiple material classes. Here we introduce charge programmed multi-material additive manufacturing platform, offering unparalleled flexibility in antenna design and the capability for rapid printing of intricate antenna structures that are unprecedented or necessitate a series of fabrication routes. Demonstrating its potential, we present a transmitarray antenna...
Zheng has been working on the CPD platform since 2019 when his group first came up with the concept. In 2020, his team published their first paper in Nature...
Multi-material printing employing charge-programmed material is utilized for phase array antenna fabrication, showcasing an ultra-lightweight RF phase array. Significant weight reduction is achieved through selective dielectric material printing. Our approach enables complex electronic device fabrication in one step, utilizing a mosaic of surface charge regions to deposit functional materials with precision. We demonstrate the inherently complex manufacturing process via homogeneous diffusion and fluid dynamics control.
