Selectively Metalizable Low-Temperature Cofired Ceramic for Three-Dimensional Electronics via Hybrid Additive Manufacturing

With increasing interest in the rapid development of customized ceramic electronics, hybrid additive manufacturing (HAM) technology has become a competent alternative to traditional solutions such as printed circuit boards and cofired ceramic technology. Herein, the novel HAM technology is proposed by combining a dispensing three-dimensional (3D) printing process and selectively laser-activated electroless plating for fabricating 3D fully functional ceramic electronic products. An appropriative 3D-printable and metalizable low-temperature cofired ceramic slurry is developed to build the green body of ceramic electronics. After the debinding and sintering process, the 3D ceramic structure can be selectively laser-activated and then electrolessly plated to achieve electronic functionality. The thickness of the plated copper layer approaches 10 mu m after 4 h of plating, and the electrical conductivity is 5.5 x 10(7) S m(-1), which is close to pure copper (5.8 x 10(7) S m(-1)). To reduce the surface roughness of the laser-activated ceramic surface and thereby enhance the conductivity of the copper layer, the laser parameters are optimized as a 1250 mm s(-1) scan speed, a 0.4 W laser power, and a 20 kHz laser-spot frequency. A high-power 3D light-emitting diode circuit board with an internal cooling channel is successfully developed to prove the feasibility of this HAM technology for customizing fully functional 3D conformal ceramic electronics.

Automated summary

The article introduces a novel hybrid additive manufacturing technology, which combines 3D printing and electroless plating, for the fabrication of customized ceramic electronics. By optimizing the laser and plating parameters, functional ceramic electronics with high conductivity are achieved, demonstrating the potential of this technology.