Rapid Prototyping of 3D Printed, High Aspect Ratio, Low Noise Amplifier for Active Handheld Sensor Devices
, David Elsaesser 1, Douglas Ketchum 1 and Daniel R. Hines 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Review of the manuscript “Rapid Prototyping of 3D Printed, High Aspect Ratio, Low Noise Amplifier for Active Hand-Held Sensor Devices” submitted for publication on “JMMP”. It is about the use of additive manufacturing for fabrication of a low noise amplifier for a hand-held active sensor device operating up to 1 GHz.
The manuscript looks like interesting and relatively novel, as many of the proposed references. English is fine. The manuscript is well organized and clear enough, at least from the manufacturing point of view (rapid prototyping of a high aspect ratio LNA used as a compact, active and hand-held sensor device. The comparison with other Additive Manufacturing Techniques has been illustrated (Table 1) and the advantages of LNA devices have been highlighted, with results comparable to the COTS LNA (5:1 aspect ratio and without loss in RF performance).
In my opinion the manuscript can be accepted as it is.
Author Response
Thank you for taking the time to review our manuscript and for your positive assessment. We appreciate your valuable feedback and are pleased to hear that you found our research to be well-conducted and significant.
Reviewer 2 Report
1. The authors must include a brief note on the different types of additive manufacturing techniques with respect to electronics.
2. Please explain the effect of stand-off distance and overlap on trace printing
3. What was the deposition efficiency of AJP printing
Author Response
We appreciate your efforts in reviewing our paper and providing us with valuable feedback. Your comments have helped us to strengthen our research and present a more comprehensive and rigorous analysis. We look forward to your continued support and guidance in the future.
- The authors must include a brief note on the different types of additive manufacturing techniques with respect to electronics.
>> We appreciate the suggestions you provided and have incorporated additional manufacturing techniques related to electronics in the introduction section as well as AM methods in Table 1 in the first paragraph of the introduction to read
“There has been a growing interest in the use of 3D printing technology for the fabrication of printed electronics. Various researches have explored the use of 3D printing for the creation of conductive traces, capacitors, and RF electronic components such as transmission lines and antennas. There are several different 3D printing methods, each with their unique strengths and weaknesses such as fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), inkjet, aerosol jet printing (AJP), selective laser sintering (SLS), direct energy deposition (DED), and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing. Previous works on RF devices using various 3D printing technologies are given in Table 1.”
- Please explain the effect of stand-off distance and overlap on trace printing
>> We added the following sentences after the reference [33] in the first paragraph of the section 3.2.
“…Stand-off distance and overlap of traces can have a significant impact on the quality and accuracy of the printed traces. A smaller stand-off distance can result in higher resolution and better control over the printed trace, but it can also decrease the overlap percentage between adjacent traces and increase the risk of clogging or damage to the nozzle. On the other hand, a larger stand-off distance can make it easier to print wider lines or cover a larger area with a higher overlap percentage, but it may result in lower resolution and less precise control. We optimize stand-off distance and overlap percentage for the specific requirements of the printing application, such as the desired resolution, thickness, and uniformity of the printed layer.”
- What was the deposition efficiency of AJP printing
>> The deposition rate was indicated in the paragraph before Figure 5 to read
" In order to establish a printed trace width of 75 mm and an ink stream deposition rate of 0.0005 mm3/s, gas flows varied but were typically set at 1100, 1070, and 15 sccm for the atomizer, exhaust, and sheath, respectively.”
Reviewer 3 Report
In this manuscript the authors presented an interesting experimental work on the fabrication of an innovative low noise amplifier using additive and subtracting technologies.
The structure of the paper is not very clear, I would suggest to divide the manuscript into standard sections: introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, conclusions.
The introduction is a bit superficial and should be enriched with other works on the topic described.
Finally, it is not clear what hand-held is related to. This aspect should be better clarified with some examples/applications.
Other minor comments:
Line 180: viscosities from 1 to 1000 - measurement unit is missing
Author Response
Thank you very much for your insightful comments on our paper. Your suggestions have been immensely helpful in improving the quality of our work. We have carefully considered your comments and have made the necessary revisions to address the issues you raised. Please find our responses to your questions and suggestions below, highlighted in red:
In this manuscript the authors presented an interesting experimental work on the fabrication of an innovative low noise amplifier using additive and subtracting technologies.
The structure of the paper is not very clear, I would suggest to divide the manuscript into standard sections: introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, conclusions.
>> As we are not currently focusing on the materials aspect, we have made the necessary revisions to the sections to reflect this change: introduction, design and methods, results and discussion, conclusions. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
The introduction is a bit superficial and should be enriched with other works on the topic described.
>> We revised the introduction to address other works related to the 3D printed hybrid electronics in the first paragraph of the introduction section to read:
“There has been a growing interest in the use of 3D printing technology for the fabrication of printed electronics. Various researches have explored the use of 3D printing for the creation of conductive traces, capacitors, and RF electronic components such as transmission lines and antennas. There are several different 3D printing methods, each with their unique strengths and weaknesses such as fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), inkjet, aerosol jet printing (AJP), selective laser sintering (SLS), direct energy deposition (DED), and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing. Previous works on RF devices using various 3D printing technologies are given in Table 1.”
Finally, it is not clear what hand-held is related to. This aspect should be better clarified with some examples/applications.
>> I completely understand your concern about the lack of clarity regarding the term "hand-held device". We revised the second paragraph of the introduction to read
“Hand-held devices encompass a broad range of portable electronic devices that have numerous practical applications such as smart phones, tablets, and GPS location sensors in our daily lives. Electronic circuits can be printed utilizing various materials to fulfill the specific requirements of applications such as probes and sensors, even without the use of conventional PCB manufacturing equipment. With advancements in technology, handheld electronic sensors/probes can now be easily and affordably created using 3D printing that has the potential to greatly improve the way we measure and monitor. A commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hand-held probing device, such as a thermal or electro-magnetic (EM) near-field sensor has been widely used for debugging, fault detection, electromagnetic interference (EMI)/electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), and compliance testing of RF devices [18], [19].”
Other minor comments:
Line 180: viscosities from 1 to 1000 - measurement unit is missing
>> Thank you for bringing that to my attention. We have revised it to read 1000 cps.
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors addressed all the revisions requested and the manuscript can now be accepted for publication.
