Date of Award

2009-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Eric Macdonald

Abstract

Traditional placement of components and routing in electronic devices has been constrained to two dimensions in printed circuit board technology. Routing of electrical signals in these devices has been extended to two and half dimensions by virtue of additional routing layers which are connected through vertical vias (i.e. four layer printed circuit boards or CMOS chips with seven layers of metal routing), however, truly three dimensional off axis component placement and routing have not yet been explored. Solid freeform fabrication provides the means of creating a dielectric substrate suitable for these electronics with sockets for components and channels for interconnect. Direct print dispensing of conductive inks or epoxies into these channels has been reported previously for electronic applications, but was generally confined to two dimensions in a fashion similar other traditional electronics. This research describes demonstration prototypes in which components and routing are placed off-axis to fulfill application requirements (e.g. a three-dimensional magnetic flux sensor system) and to provide new levels of design freedom for the implementation of electronics systems.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

139 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Misael Navarrete

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