Selective Laser Sintering of Multilayer, Multimaterial Circuit Components

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is presented for the creation of multilayer circuit components compatible with microwave frequencies. SLS is a one step process that uses a laser to pattern and fully sinter screen printable inks without the use of any high temperature post processing. For the first time, this process is demonstrated for multiple layers of material with varying properties, such as metals and dielectrics. Sequentially sintering conventional thick film materials is used to create functional layers, both conductive and dielectric, in a layer by layer fashion, forming metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors and spiral inductors on soda-lime glass