Dylan Richmond, a fourth-year doctoral student in the Materials Science and Engineering Program, conducts research focused on identifying innovative materials and processes to produce reliable, low-cost, low-waste flexible electronic devices. His research group prints and builds circuits onto adaptable plastic materials.

“My favorite part of this work is definitely printing the materials and making something go from a design to an actual circuit and then building upon that and making the whole device,” Richmond says.

He has worked with Binghamton’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing, or CAMM lab, for two and a half years. The laboratory is directed by Mark Poliks, a SUNY distinguished professor of systems science and industrial engineering. Richmond works alongside Poliks on several projects.

“Dylan is a highly motivated individual who is always willing to accept new and challenging responsibilities,” Poliks says. “It has been my privilege to see him develop into an independent professional scientist.”

The CAMM produces devices that are made to withstand high temperatures and large influxes of energy. They can flex onto virtually any curved surface seamlessly, all while adopting the flexibility of a Band-Aid.

In traditional electronics manufacturing, copper or another conductive metal coats the entire plate and excess materials are etched away to leave behind the circuit. However, the CAMM focuses on printing through additive manufacturing. This process reduces waste and is a cost-effective alternative.

“In additive manufacturing, you only print what you need,” Richmond says. “So you print just the design of the circuit.”

While growing up in Owego, Richmond favored the complex nature of math and science over all other elementary subjects. His initial curiosity and appreciation ultimately paved the way for his future as an engineer.

During his final year at SUNY Oswego, where he received his bachelor’s in physics, Richmond had an opportunity to conduct research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on perovskite solar cells. Perovskite is a low-cost, high-energy material that can be used to power electronic devices.

Flexible hybrid electronics combine printed electronic circuits and the flexibility of plastic materials with the efficiency of thinned semiconductor devices to produce a new form of electronics.

“Flexible electronics should be able to adapt to locations and environments where they are needed. The key word here is adapting,” Richmond says. “You want them to not be a nuisance to you. You want to barely notice that they’re on you. So the challenge is making them so thin, so light-weight, so that you barely notice that you’re wearing them and they’re not getting in the way of your daily activities.”

Printed electronics are still novel and fundamental work still needs to be done. As the field of materials science gains more traction, Richmond says that he is less interested in competition and more interested in sharing his knowledge with like-minded peers in the engineering community.

“There’s a lot of people that are interested in this right now, and I just want to contribute to it,” he says.

The influence of the Green Revolution has motivated Richmond to hope for a future in the renewable energy sector. He aspires to combine his knowledge and experience in materials science with his passion for printing and green energy, to create his own renewable energy company in the future.

“Many of our projects involve collaboration with colleagues at major corporations and other universities,” Poliks says. “Dylan has had the opportunity to develop the skills needed to work in a complex team environment. As a result he is now well prepared to work in a highly competitive research and development laboratory.”

The new center, to be known as FlexMed, will assist with job creation through the development and commercialization of technologies in New York state. FlexMed will be a part of the University’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM).

The FlexMed CAT will allow researchers at Binghamton University and our industry partners to build on more than a decade of experience in designing and manufacturing flexible electronics, said Mark D. Poliks, empire innovation professor of engineering and director of the new center. Poliks also serves as director of the CAMM, the official New York node of the national NextFlex manufacturing institute.

“We have unique facilities and expertise in partnering with industry that will enable us to make contributions to New York companies’ R&D right away,” he said. “This investment, combined with our ongoing work with NextFlex, establishes us as a major resource for large and small firms that are interested in flexible, wearable medical and industrial devices.”

Poliks, author of more than 100 technical papers, holds 47 U.S. patents. He envisions the center working with startup companies around the state to develop prototype devices in a cost-efficient and timely fashion so that they can be brought to market as quickly as possible. Initial projects may include wearable biosensors embedded in textiles and roll-to-roll manufacturing of electronic glass and ceramic surfaces.

The center, an interdisciplinary effort with collaborators at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, will offer training, workshops and academic classes. “As an educator, I’m also excited about the workforce development aspect of this center,” Poliks said. “Students at Binghamton and at SUNY Poly will have opportunities to learn state-of-the-art techniques and will be prepared for careers in this vital and growing economic sector when they graduate.”

FlexMed will serve as the nucleus of a manufacturing industry cluster in the quickly emerging field of medical and pharmaceutical device manufacturing, said Howard Zemsky, Empire State Development president, CEO and commissioner. “It will enable industry partners to scale up flexible-hybrid electronics technologies and present them to the marketplace more quickly, while harnessing various academic capabilities for product development and commercialization, workforce development and job creation efforts for New York state,” he said.

Flexible medical devices could include lightweight sensors for use in monitoring hospital patients, athletes and members of the armed services.

Harvey Stenger, president of Binghamton University, said FlexMed will build upon the campus’ strengths in engineering and the health sciences. “Our laboratories in Endicott and at the Innovative Technologies Complex are truly state of the art,” he said. “FlexMed will contribute to the Southern Tier’s rich culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Binghamton, which recently earned a “very high research” classification from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, is cultivating faculty teams to pursue large-scale center grants like this one, said Bahgat Sammakia, vice president for research at Binghamton University. He noted that the campus is also home to another CAT, the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center.

“Mark Poliks is an exceptional researcher, and his decades of experience in working with teams of faculty members and industry partners will be a tremendous asset to FlexMed,” Sammakia said. “This center will work on technology that has the potential to benefit society and improve healthcare in important ways.”

The event, organized by the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing, brings together researchers from academia, national labs and industry for discussions of recent advances in the fields of flexible electronics, device and conductor printing and emerging electronic materials. Participants also discuss research and development needs in the field.

John Pellegrino, director of the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, gave the symposium’s keynote address. Speakers also included scientists from Penn State, 3M, Corning, Eastman Kodak, GE, HP, PARC and Xerox.

The symposium featured a student poster session as well as tours of CAMM’s roll-to-roll manufacturing research center at Endicott Interconnect Technologies.

CAMM’s latest addition, the CHA Industries Web Coater, was featured during tours of the facility. The $6 million machine, built for the FlexTech Alliance with funding from the Army Research Laboratory, was installed at the CAMM earlier this year.

CAMM Director Peter Borgesen said the web coater allows the center to engage in high-volume manufacturing of thin-film transistors on flexible surfaces. The tool is unique in the country at the moment, and may even be the only one of its kind in the world.

“We can do vacuum processing on a scale that’s not normally done in manufacturing yet, and we can do it with an accuracy that’s not generally possible yet,” Borgesen said. “It enables you to do something that normally you could only do in a physics lab.”