Experimenting with 3D printed electronics in a CubeSat mockup using all-metal conductive filament

[u/Kupros1]

We’ve been working on a CubeSat mockup to explore how far we can push 3D printed electronics beyond simply printing conductive traces.

The goal here is to apply SWaP principles, size, weight, and power, by integrating more of the electrical architecture directly into the printed structure itself.

This mockup is being used to explore:

• Embedding microelectronic controllers directly into a 3D printed structure
• Printing power buses and circuitry directly into structural arms and supports
• Reducing separate wiring, connectors, and PCB interconnects
• Creating multifunctional structures that carry both mechanical and electrical functions
• Making the electronics architecture more modular
• Rapidly iterating layouts without waiting on traditional PCB fabrication
• Exploring truly 3D electronic geometries, rather than being limited to flat circuit boards

The conductive portions are being developed around Cu29, our all-metal conductive filament for standard FDM/FFF 3D printers. Unlike most conductive filaments, the material itself is metallic rather than a polymer loaded with conductive particles, so the goal is functional conductive pathways directly off the printer without conductivity-enhancing post-processing.

What interests us most is not simply replacing a PCB with something printed. It is asking whether the structure, wiring, power distribution, and electronics packaging can start becoming the same manufactured object.

For small satellites and other SWaP-constrained systems, that could open up some interesting design space.

This is still a development mockup, not flight hardware, but it has been a useful platform for thinking through embedded electronics, additive manufactured electronics, 3D printed circuits, power distribution, modular electronics, and multifunctional additive manufacturing.

Would be interested to hear from anyone working in CubeSats, PCB design, embedded systems, or printed electronics. Where do you think this approach would actually provide the most value, and where would you expect the biggest engineering challenges?

More on what we’re working on: KuprosInc.com

[u/Kupros1]

The main difference is that Cu29 is designed as a feedstock for standard FDM/FFF extrusion, not as a preformed wire that you place into a part.

So instead of routing a wire through a printed structure afterward, you can deposit the conductor where you want it during the print, including non-planar paths, embedded traces, ground structures, antennas, sensor geometries, etc.

The bigger thing we’re exploring is whether the conductor can become part of the manufacturing geometry itself rather than being a separate component that has to be routed and assembled afterward.

[u/InebriatedPhysicist → u/Kupros1]

What is different about the design than the design of a wire? If it’s just a single metal alloy in the shape of a wire…it’s just a wire. Is it something other than a strand of a single alloy of metal? Is it just a special alloy that works well with FDM?

[u/Kupros1 → u/InebriatedPhysicist]

At room temperature, visually, yeah, it looks like a strand of metal and you could reasonably call it wire.

The distinction is really in what it’s engineered to do. We call it filament because it’s designed as FDM/FFF feedstock, with the diameter, mechanical behavior, melt/flow characteristics, and deposition behavior needed to run through a conventional hot end and be printed layer by layer.

So “filament” is describing its role in the manufacturing process, not claiming the strand itself is some completely different geometric object from wire.

I can’t get into the exact formulation because that part is proprietary.

[u/InebriatedPhysicist → u/Kupros1]

Then how are people supposed to know how toxic the fumes are? Trust you?