Advancements on Additive Manufacturing of Wireless Electronics for Aviation and Space Environments

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes for electronics have evolved to produce high-performance high-frequency passive components when compared to traditionally manufactured counterparts. Furthermore, AM, combined with subtractive methods such as pulsed laser machining, enables novel 3D antenna and RF packaging geometries that offer advantages over the traditional planar designs. The transformative nature of AM in the RF and antenna engineering community is widely recognized for aviation and space applications, as it brings additional logistic advantages with the ability to print devices on a single machine, in the field, ad-hoc, with the ability of quick re-design and repair. This presentation discusses recent advancements on laser-enhanced AM to achieve 3D multilayer passives devices and sensors, with feature sizes down to 10 µm, compatible with space and aviation environments. As the fragility of the worldwide electronics supply change has become more apparent in recent years, a vision on how AM will advance society and human space exploration will be discussed.

Speakers:

Prof. Eduardo Rojas
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Eduardo Rojas earned his B.S. degree from the Universidad de Carabobo, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of South Florida, all in Electrical Engineering; in 2009, 2014, and 2017, respectively. He joined Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2017, where he is currently an associate professor. His research interests are in microwave/mm-wave circuits and antenna applications of additive manufacturing; and wireless sensing for harsh environments. Rojas is the Director of ERAU’s Wireless Devices and Electromagnetics Laboratory (WiDE Lab www.wide-lab.com). He received a CAREER Award from The National Science Foundation in 2019; the 2020 Most Promising Engineer Award, Ph.D. Education category, from the Great Minds in Stem (GMiS) organization; and ERAU’s 2021 Abas Sivjee Outstanding Research Award. Rojas has more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and 5 U.S. patents. Rojas is a member of the IEEE MTT-S Technical Committees 4, 26, and 29; and the RTCA SC-236 committee for Standards for Wireless Avionics Intra-Communication System (WAIC) within 4200-4400 MHz.