ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING FOR RAPID PROTOTYPING OF MM-WAVE CIRCUITS

Additive manufacturing (AM) has recently attracted significant interest to meet the need of nextgeneration of wireless systems, and the growing demand for customization and rapid prototyping of electronic systems. In addition, AM is being investigated to supplement and in some cases replace traditional microelectronic fabrication techniques. This is to lessen the ecological impact of electronics manufacturing as well as to reduce cleanroom facility costs. This research work focuses on the use of AM for the design and fabrication of microwave and millimeter wave components and systems, leading to heterogeneous integration. For systems integration, two major challenges to tackle are: (1) rapid printing of conductive regions with high precision and high conductivity; (2) selective deposition of dielectrics with varying geometries surrounding active and passive components. In this work, printing of both conductors and dielectrics was carried out using aerosol jet printing (AJP). AJP allows for high resolution printing (~10 μm) at a large standoff distance (~10 mm). Silver (Ag) based inks were investigated to achieve high conductivity and polymers (benzocyclobutene, BCB and Polyimide, PI) as low-loss dielectric materials.