Automated Hybrid 3-D Printing of 3-D Meandering Interconnects

In this paper, a completely automated computer-aided design (CAD)-to-print process flow for hybrid direct-write 3-D printing (3DP) was produced. We adapted this capability to manufacture a meandering conductive trace formed into a meandering arbitrary interconnect in the shape of a 3-D pretzel that is completely embedded in dielectric. The conversion between g-code and pgm-code was demonstrated for hybrid 3DP between metal and dielectric materials. This paper produced a reliable automated process that can potentially be used to manufacture arbitrary 3-D circuits. This paper also identified the need for better slicing techniques for hybrid manufacturing of interconnects.