A Novel Approach Toward the Integration of Fully 3-D Printed Surface-Mounted Microwave Ceramic Filters

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 71; no. 9; pp. 1 - 14
• Main Authors: Fontana, Andres, Delage, Anthony, Perigaud, Aurelien, Richard, Patrice, Carsenat, David, Acikalin, Guillaume, Verdeyme, Serge, Bonnet, Barbara, Carpentier, Ludovic, Delhote, Nicolas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.09.2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Additive manufacturing (AM); Bandpass filters; ceramic materials; Ceramics; Couplings; Electronic circuits; Engineering Sciences; Engraving; Filtering theory; Lithography; Manufacturing; Masers; Microwave circuits; Microwave filters; Resonator filters; stereolithography (SLA); surface-mount devices; Three dimensional printing
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2023.3267541

A first approach toward the integration of heterogeneous electronic circuit technologies and fully 3-D printed ceramic microwave devices is discussed in this work. Additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities are explored for the development of multifunction surface-mount compact components used in different RF front-ends' scenarios. Monolithic ceramic bandpass filters (BPFs) are designed to operate in the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">X</tex-math> </inline-formula>-Band and to assess the typical limitations of ceramic stereolithography (SLA) processes. A post-fabrication tuning method based on a laser engraving strategy is presented to overcome the manufacturing constraints and carry out the filters' correction. 2.5-D and 3-D printed four-pole filters were fabricated and tuned using the proposed methodology.