Yaun Gu1, Donghun Park2, David Bowen,3 Siddhartha Das,1,4 and Daniel R. Hines3
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, 20742, USA
2Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, 20742, USA
3Laboratory for Physical Sciences, 8050 Greenmead Drive, College Park, Maryland, 20740
4CALCE, Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA
Abstract:
Additive manufacturing has the potential to fabricate passive components
(e.g., capacitors, resistors, inductors, etc.) of a radio frequency (RF) circuit
with minimized dimensions and controllable shapes in order to realize
high-density RF electronics for applications such as high resolution radars,
healthcare monitors, and wearable sensors that involve high data-rate
transmissions. Here a novel procedure to direct-write 3D, solid-core solenoidinductors
with polymer-core, iron-core, and ferrite-core using aerosol-jet 3D
printing is reported. Solid-core solenoid inductors that are of order 30 mm3
in size are achieved and most importantly, commercially relevant inductance
values of microhenry (for polymer-core) to tens and hundreds of millihenry
(for ferrite and iron cores) are demonstrated, which has been beyond the
scope of the previous attempts in fabricating additively manufactured
inductors. Furthermore, the authors direct-write printed inductors of various
geometries and pinpoint the geometry-dependent inductor performances.