Laser enhanced direct print additive manufacturing (LE-DPAM) technology has recently been demonstrated to achieve success in packaging of antennas with phase shifters to realize passive phased antenna arrays (PAAs). Utilizing LE-DPAM for PAAs operating in mm-wave bands brings out new challenges that need to be addressed. These challenges are associated with smaller antenna and feature sizes needed for mm-wave band operation, necessity of active circuits for amplification, and number of pads, pad size and pad locations of mm-wave beamformer IC packages. This paper presents our initial progress in scaling LE-DPAM based packaging of PAAs into the mm-wave band operation through consideration and demonstration of discrete components (i.e. antenna array elements and beamformer ICs) that form the PAA structure. Specifically, a stand-alone, passive, 2×2 LE-DPAM based 26 GHz antenna subarray is investigated for its performance. In addition, a 24.5 GHz – 27 GHz beamformer IC is packaged in a stand-alone test article using LE-DPAM and investigated for its mm-wave performance and thermal aspects.
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Laser enhanced direct print additive manufacturing for mm-wave components and packaging
Direct print additive manufacturing (DPAM) is an additive manufacturing technique that combines fused deposition modeling with micro-dispensing. As a multimaterial 3D printing method it has proven to be effective for fabricating printed electronics that operate in the microwave frequency range. This paper discusses the addition of picosecond laser processing to the DPAM process, and the enhancements to high-frequency performance and design capability that are made possible. The use of laser-enhanced DPAM for 3D fabrication of transmission lines, passive components and packaging is discussed.
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- PAR ID:
- 10062214
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2017 International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1531 to 1534
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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