Design and Performance of Additively Manufactured In-Circuit Board Planar Capacitors

Abstract

This article discusses the design and performance of planar capacitors built as pairs of conductive plates by additive manufacturing as part of an electronic circuit board. This article covers several geometries and layers of parallel plates that allow for different capacitance values, from a few picofarads (pF) to several nanofarads (nF). The dc, ac, and radio frequency (RF) characterization demonstrated superior performance compared to off-the-shelve surface mount device (SMD) capacitors up to 20 GHz. The additively manufactured capacitors exhibit breakdown voltages in excess of 1 kV and subpicoampere leakage currents, while the change in RF impedance changes, as a function of frequency, is a factor of 3× smaller than SMD capacitors.

Wideband Broadside-Coupled Line Baluns Enabled by Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing

“…11(e) and (f) also include the EM-simulated responses of the test structures for alternative levels of roughness. A good agreement is obtained between the EM-simulated and the RF-measured responses when using the measured R a values of 0.1 µm for the topdownward case and R a = 2 µm for the bottom-upward case in combination with a conductivity σ = 1.8 × 10 6 Sm −1 [71]. Taking into consideration that the printing orientation affects RF performance, the top-downward approach was used for the manufacturing of the rest of the test structures and devices.…”

“…Their performance is determined by considering the capabilities of the inkjet process in [56] with the minimum spacing (S) being the most critical factor. Specifically, the process allows for two different materials to be printed in the same manufacturing platform, namely an acylate-based dielectric ink with relative permittivity (ε r ) ∼2.83 and dielectric loss tangent tan(δ) ∼ 0.023 at 5 GHz, and a silver nanoparticle conductive ink with conductivity σ between 1.8 × 10 6 and 2.52 × 10 7 S/m [56], [62], [71]. All initial simulations were performed using the nominal value in the data sheet as 2.21 × 10 7 S/m [56].…”

“…It facilitates thin and thick substrates to be realized by combining multiple dielectric and metallic layers and can be exploited for the realization of vertically integrated components. Alternative component demonstrations have been shown using this manufacturing technology including antennas [57], [58], metasurfaces [59], [60], [61], interdigital capacitors [71], and bandpass filters to frequencies as high as 20 GHz.…”

Recent Inventions in Additive Manufacturing: Holistic Review

“…These antennas, designed for sub-6 GHz frequencies, exhibit great potential for applications in 5G consumer mobile electronics, combining an ultra-low profile and wideband capabilities. Sokol et al [64] explore the use of AM technology for designing and producing planar capacitors as part of electronic circuit boards. The capacitors are constructed as pairs of conductive plates with varying geometries and layers, allowing for a wide range of capacitance values, from picofarads to nanofarads.…”

Investigation of the profilogram structure of microstrip microwave modules manufactured using additive 3D-printing technology

“…Технологии трехмерной печати в достаточной мере известны, исследованы и системно отработаны -сегодня на индустриальном рынке представлен широкий ряд технологического оборудования и композитов от различных компаний и производителей [1]. При этом в радиоэлектронном секторе промышленные технологии печатной электроники появились только в 2019 г. Это обусловлено тем, что для решения технологических задач аддитивной печати требуются специальные материалы, состоящие из раствора наночастиц в дисперсионной среде -наночернила [2]. Кроме того, важно отметить, что аддитивное решение двухкомпонентной печати требует комбинированного применения наночернил (проводящих и диэлектрических), обладающих совместимыми радиофизическими свойствами, обеспечивающими печать с необходимой разрешающей способностью и равномерностью распределения заданных параметров в многослойной структуре печатного модуля.…”