TRX Webinar: Insertion Loss of 3D Printed Selectively Metallized Microstrip Circuits

This webinar will feature Colby Hobart of Fortify and Mike Vinson of Averatek. Fortify and Averatek have teamed up to create a series of Microstrip parts to study the effects of surface roughness on insertion loss, for 3D printed, low-loss dielectrics with Averatek’s selective metallization using plated copper. Fortify’s Flux Core printer was used to print eight variants of a 200mm and 50mm substrate at 750um thick. The parts were printed from Rogers Corporporation’s RadixTM material with a Dk of 2.8 and a dielectric loss tangent of 0.0043 @10GHz. This high viscosity material with heavy filler loading is printed using DLP technology with Fortify’s trademarked Continuous Kinetic Mixing (CKM) technology ensures isotropy in the material by preventing settling of the fillers during printing. To induce multiple surface finishes, parts were printed in various orientations, including signal-side against the build plate, signal-side against the film, and signal side orthogonal to the build plate at multiple vertical angles from the build plate (0°, 30°, 40°, 70°, and 90°). All samples were then measured on Fortify’s laser profilometry system from Keyence. Averatek’s metal patterning process is based on LMI(™), their patented chemistry enabling ultra thin metal patterns. This fully additive technology results in conformal metalization that mimics the surface precisely. 3D surfaces on a variety of metals can be patterned with copper and other noble metals such as gold and platinum.