Additively Manufactured Highly Integrated mm-Wave Packaging Structures

Abstract —Modern 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), and wearable devices require tons of features packed into a small, portable form factor. This brings significant challenges to both the design of the packaging and the manufacturing of the device. This is where additive manufacturing (AM) can play a critical role. AM is a technology which can deposit various of materials in both 2D and 3D manner to realize complex geometries with superior resolution, accuracy, and speed. Compared to traditional subtractive manufacturing methods such as milling and chemical etching, AM techniques only use the minimum amount of materials which can reduce the cost significantly, making it the ideal candidate for future “smart city” that promises to connect billions of devices in all different types of environments. AM also enables novel integration of structures that are un-realizable with traditional manufacturing techniques. With AM, fully featured electronic devices can be realized in a customized 3D multi-layer stack within a single package. This paper gives a review of additively manufactured highly integrated packaging structures that operate at 5G mm-wave frequencies.