Multifunctional cooling and electrical interposer for RF wireless systems based on Additive Manufacturing

Purpose and goal:

The unique idea addressed in this project is to integrate active fluid-based lateral cooling into a multi-functional metal interposer acting as carrier support for surface mount RF front-end electronics on one side and digital control and power supply back-end electronics on the other side. Besides cooling, the metal interposer is also used for vertical interconnects from the RF front-end to the digital back-end.

The metal interposer will be implemented using laser-powder bed fusion (LPBF) based additive manufacturing (AM) technique. Expected results and effects:

This project has a high potential to solve the thermal limitations of future millimetre-wave active antenna array communication and sensing systems as mentioned in the background above.

Furthermore, mentioned communication and sensing systems are key enablers behind technology aiming at solving several of the global sustainability goals as defined in Agenda 2030, e.g., the power of artificial intelligence relies strongly on improved connectivity and reliable sensor data Approach and implementation:

The project will be implemented in four technical work packages (WP): 1. Thermal and mechanical design of the metal interposer, 2. Multi-physical simulations, 3.

Additive manufacturing, 4 Testing and characterization. The four WPs will run with strong interaction. WP 1 and 2 run essentially in parallel time shifted towards the production that takes place in WP3.

Development of measurement methods in work package 4 takes place in parallel with WP 1-3. These four packages are supported by a project management work package to ensure that no work stops due to late delivery in a supporting WP.