Greater Design Flexibility with Selectivity Metallized 3D Printed RF Ceramics

Ceramics are widely used as “hard” substrates for high-power and high-performance RF applications from high-power sub-1 GHz applications, space-grade assemblies, thin-/thick-film passives, to experimental research at extreme temperatures and frequencies. Given the relatively high thermal conductivity and high/low operating temperatures of RF ceramics, this class of materials is generally used in applications where high temperatures and forces are involved in the manufacturing process, such as wirebonding. There are also planar circuit processes that use ceramics as a circuit substrate, such as low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) and high-temperature co-fired ceramics (HTCC). Ceramics are also widely used for constructing RF components and dielectric portions of components, such as filter resonators.