MaskCircuit: 3D Circuits with Acrylic Sheets and Laser Cutting

Laser cutting is an accessible fabrication technique for designers to create supporting structures for tangible interfaces and electronic devices. However, it is challenging to integrate electronics into laser-cut prototypes due to bulky prefabricated components and wiring. To address these challenges, we propose MaskCircuit, a maker-friendly fabrication approach for 3D circuits based on commonly used laser cutters and acrylic sheets. MaskCircuit leverages the protective film of acrylic sheets as a mask. Circuits are created on acrylic sheets by laser engraving traces into the masked acrylic sheets, manually applying conductive paint into traces, and removing the mask to reveal inlaid conductive traces. We also explored circuit features supported by MaskCircuit, including double-layer circuit fabrication, mounting electronic components, and creating 3D circuits by deforming or assembling acrylic sheets with circuits. We demonstrate several applications to showcase the capabilities of the MaskCircuit approach.