Aerosol Jet Fully 3D Printed RF Attenuator Using Resistive Ink

In this paper, aerosol jet printing is used to print the substrate, microstrips, and resistive material to realize a fully additively manufactured Pi configuration RF attenuator. The current target attenuator is 10dB. The resistive material is a commercially available carbon black based ink called Metalon® JR-038. With the resistive material, accurate resistors were able to be printed achieving optimal attenuator realization. The desired frequency of operation of the attenuator was 1 – 40 GHz. The printed 10 dB attenuator had an average attenuation of 9.67 dB and ramped down 1 dB across the desired band. In conclusion, resistive material can be printed using AJP to realize high frequency attenuators.