Emily Patterson

Additive manufacturing processes in electronics can certainly improve efficiency during production, but what about conductivity?

Traditionally, copper wiring provides conductivity to electrical circuits, but AME gives us the opportunity to experiment with new materials. And some of these materials can actually improve on the conductivity of copper and other more traditional materials.

Copper's room temperature conductivity is 59.6 millisiemens/metre (MS/m). This is higher than steel (4 MS/m) and aluminium (35 MS/m). It's lower than silver at 64.5 MS/m, but the relative cost of silver makes this unfeasible as a material.

Compare this to a material like the carbon nanotube (CNT). CNT has an electrical conductivity of 100 MS/m, significantly outperforming both carbon and silver. The CNT material is also less dense—7.3 g/cm3 to copper's 8.96 g/cm3.

Developing CNT materials enables electrical engineers to boost conductivity with AME processes while reducing weight and density.