Investigation on electrical and mechanical properties of 3D printed nylon 6 for RF/microwave electronics applications

Abstract The current study presents low cost 3D printed materials with desired electrical charactrestics for RF/microwave applications. In contrast to the traditional manufacturing techniques of fabrication in electronics, additive manufacturing (AM) is a proper technology for making parts with more advanced complex features. The applications of AM in RF/microwave devices have increased in recent years. In this study, different 3D printed configurations (infill density and pattern) of materials were printed with Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technique to achieve different electrical characteristics, which is used in design and fabrication of RF/microwave structures. By different filling configurations, a range of relative permittivity has been obtained by using Nylon 6 as an input filament for 3D printing. In fact, by use of a known material such as Nylon 6, complex geometries can be 3D printed with different dielectric behavior. Mechanical properties of the structures were investigated in order to estimate the quality of the 3D printed parts in electronics’ industry. Considering these properties has direct influence on decision making through the design of a 3D structure with required electrical characteristics, while the mechanical properties are also considered.