Printed Hybrid Electronics (PHE) Manufacturing for Next-Gen RF Electronics

Additive manufacturing (AM) methods are continuing to mature not only to fabricate structural and prototype parts but also to fabricate high-quality electronic components and circuits. Direct-write (DW) printing is becoming a powerful tool for AM fabrication of printed circuitization, printed interconnects, and other printed passive circuit components. These Flexible and printed hybrid electronics (FHE & PHE) fabrication methods provide specific advantages for heterogeneous integration at both the package and board levels for RF and conformal electronics. PHE fabrication methods are being used to fabricate demonstrator parts for board level printing of polymer coatings for circuit card assembly fabrication steps. Additional PHE fabrication methods are being matured in order to expand board level printing to include printed resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Printable versions of passive components will provide next-gen manufacturing methods that include i) improved reliability, ii) decreased size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP) along with reducing/eliminating the need for solder attach of microelectronics components, iii) enabling both component level tuning by design and while in-situ printing, and iv) enabling new form factors for integrating electronics directly into structural parts. Such PHE fabrication capabilities that are being developed at the Raytheon UMass Lowell Research Institute (RURI) will be highlighted.