3D Printed Interposer Layer for High

Density Packaging of IoT Devices

S. Mondal1, M. I. M. Ghazali2, K. Wijewardena1, D. Kumar1 and P. Chahal1

1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan Sate University
2Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 1
Outline

• Introduction and Background

• Motivation
• High frequency test vehicle
• System design
• IoT device prototype
• Fabrication
• Measurement Results
• Conclusion

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 2
Additive manufacturing process

• A process of joining materials to make objects from a 3-D model data,

usually, layer upon layer to build a 3-D structures.

• Example : 3-D printing

[4] [5]

[4] http://www.iconarchive.com/show/oxygen-icons-by-oxygen-icons.org/Devices-computer-icon.html
[5] https://formlabs.com/3d-printers/form-2/

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 3
Background

[6] [7] [8]

Automotive Medical Aerospace

Industry Industry Industry

[9] [10] [11]

Fashion Industry Food Industry Electronic

Industry
[6] https://launchforth.io/localmotors/road-ready-3d-printed-car/latest/ [9] https://designapplause.com/design/fashion-design/michael-schmidt-on-the-first-fully-articulated-3d-gown/41040/
[7] http://vexmatech.com/3d-print-medical.html [10] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2529869/Is-best-3D-printer-Machine-creates-exact-replica-face-CHOCOLATE.html
[8] https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/93176-additive-manufacturing-takes-off-in-aerospace-industry [11] http://www.elproducts.com/chucks-blog/davinci-3d-printed-bullet-button-base

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 4
Background - Advantages of 3D printing

Fast prototyping Ability to revise

Customizable
of complex design quickly
parts
structures
What can Simplified
electrical assembly
engineer
benefit out of Lightweight
AM?
Generates Less
Multiple
Low cost waste during
materials
manufacturing

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 5
Motivation

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 6
RF components using AM

Resonator T-line Coupler

Active
Antenna Components
RF
Devices
Resonators

Power
Filter divider
Waveguide

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 7
 Interposer layer using AM

• Multi-layer low cost vertical

stacking PCB layer
• Additive manufacturing enables any Interposer layer
arbitrary shaped interposer for in-
housing of chip packages. PCB layer

• Rapid prototyping Interposer layer

• Air core substrate introduction for PCB layer

high frequency components.

PCB layer
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2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 8
IoT device

• Wireless connectivity
• Sensing capability
• Digital Processing unit
• Power management unit
• Actuator

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 9
Multilayer stacking for IoT devices

Antenna layer

RF layer

Interposer layer

Digital layer

Interposer layer

Sensor layer

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 10
Interconnect performance- test vehicle

• The high frequency performance is 3D printed layer

PCB layer PCB layer
characterized for the interposer
layer.
• Transmission line – CPW –
Transmission line
Co-planar
• T line and CPW for bandwidth upto waveguide
4 GHz.

Transmission Transmission
line line

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 11
Simulation setup

• PCB layer thickness 1.52 mm.

• 3D printed layer thickness 2 mm. c L1 a
• Dielectric constant of FR4 layer is 4.4 b
d L2 a
• Dielectric constant of 3D printed
Verowhite plus layer is 2.8 b
c a

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 12
Simulation results

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 13
Simulation results

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 14
Simulation results

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 15
Simulation results

• For three layers, PCB-

Verowhite plus-PCB.
• For five layers, PCB-Verowhite
plus-PCB-Verowhite plus-PCB.
• The insertion loss increases
with more number of layers.

3 layers

5 layers

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 16
Fabrication of interposer layer
Damascene-like polishing process
Ti Cu

(I) (II) (III) (IV)

LEGO-like assembly process

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 17
Measurement Results

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 18
IoT device-a batteryless beacon

• A wireless batteryless beacon as an example IoT device is demonstrated.

• The beacon has
• An energy harvesting unit
• RF antenna
• Digital Controller unit Power
• A RF switch for modulation RF
Amplifier

Source
Energy Harvesting
Unit
Baseband
Amplifier

Timing
Unit

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 19
Batteryless beacon fabrication

(a) Two PCB layers with right most is

the top RF layer and left most is
bottom digital layer. Between the two
3D printed substrates, the bottom one
is to transfer DC power with ground
and the top one is to transfer digital
signal.
(b) The side view of the device after
integration.
(c) The device with separate antenna
and
(d) the device integrated with
antenna

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 20
Results

• Amplitude Shift Keying

(ASK) is shown here.
• The periodic digital bits
010101
are after demodulation is
shown.
• Small perturbation of the
EM field.
• The digital data can be
read.

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 21
 Challenges

• Surface Roughness
 Mitigated by mechanical polishing before metallization.
• Warpage due to heat
 Mitigated by using high temperature resin.
• Parasitic associated with soldering.
 Mitigated by using a solder-free embedding technique.
• Lossy VerowhitePlus substrate.
 Mitigated by LEGO-like assembly and air substrate approach.
For a practical purpose, realizing fully 3D printed SoP/SiP
solutions requires a combination of multiple printing
techniques

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2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 22
Conclusion

• Potential of 3D printing to realize customized electronics packaging.

• Multi-layer SoP/SiP solutions with customized substrate heights and
air gaps using 3D printing allows realization of compact high
performance RF systems.
• High frequency RF system with compact interposer layer for IoT
devices is demonstrated.
• The vertical stacking of components allows reduction in the overall
form factor.
• Fast prototyping would help in rapid revision for optimized designs.

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 23
Acknowledgment

Special thanks to members of Michigan State

University EM group and Mr. Brian Wright from
MSU ECE shop.

2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 24
 Thank You

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2019 IEEE 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference │ Las Vegas, Nevada │ May 28 – May 31, 2019 25