Correction of fabricated shapes in additive manufacturing
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsMayu Felicia Yamamura, Jason Garcheung Fung, Daniel Redfield, Rajeev Bajaj, Hou T. Ng
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Abstract
A method of fabricating an object using an additive manufacturing system includes receiving data indicative of a desired shape of the object to be fabricated by droplet ejection. The desired shape defines a profile including a top surface and one or more recesses. Data indicative of a pattern of dispensing feed material is generated to at least partially compensate for distortions of the profile caused by the additive manufacturing system, and a plurality of layers of the feed material are dispensed by droplet ejection in accordance to the pattern.
Claims20
An additive manufacturing system, comprising:
- a platform to hold an object being fabricated;
- a printhead to form a plurality of successive layers of the object by ejecting droplets of precursor material onto the platform or a previously deposited and cured layer of the object;
- a light source to cure the precursor material;
- and
- a control system configured to
- receive data indicative of a desired shape of the object, the desired shape defining a profile including a planar top surface and one or more recesses in the top surface, the one or more recesses separating features with top surfaces of the features providing the planar top surface,
- based on data indicative of a desired shape of the object and data indicative of distortions of the profile caused by the additive manufacturing system, generate data indicative of a pattern of dispensing droplets of precursor material to at least partially compensate for the distortions of the profile, wherein the pattern includes a nonplanar portion corresponding to the planar top surface, the nonplanar portion configured to at least partially compensate for distortions of the planar top surface caused by droplets of the precursor material spreading down sides of the features,
- cause the printhead to dispense a plurality of layers of the precursor material by droplet ejection in accordance to the pattern, and
- cause the light source to cure the plurality of layers to form the object.
A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising instructions to cause a processor to:
- receive data indicative of a desired shape of an object, the desired shape defining a profile including a planar top surface and one or more recesses in the top surface, the one or more recesses separating features with top surfaces of the features providing the planar top surface,
- based on data indicative of a desired shape of the object and data indicative of distortions of the profile caused by an additive manufacturing system, generate data indicative of a pattern of dispensing droplets of precursor material to at least partially compensate for the distortions of the profile, wherein the pattern includes a nonplanar portion corresponding to the planar top surface, the nonplanar portion configured to at least partially compensate for distortions of the planar top surface caused by droplets of the precursor material spreading down sides of the features, and
- cause a printhead of the additive manufacturing system to dispense a plurality of layers of the precursor material by droplet ejection in accordance to the pattern.
A method of fabricating an object using an additive manufacturing system, the method comprising:
- receiving data indicative of a desired shape of the object, the desired shape defining a profile including a planar top surface and one or more recesses in the top surface, the one or more recesses separating features with top surfaces of the features providing the planar top surface,
- based on data indicative of a desired shape of the object and data indicative of distortions of the profile caused by the additive manufacturing system, generating data indicative of a pattern of dispensing droplets of precursor material to at least partially compensate for the distortions of the profile, wherein the pattern includes a nonplanar portion corresponding to the planar top surface, the nonplanar portion configured to at least partially compensate for distortions of the planar top surface caused by droplets of the precursor material spreading down sides of the features, and
- dispensing a plurality of layers of the precursor material by droplet ejection in accordance to the pattern, and
- curing the plurality of layers to form the object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.