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.