Project Info
IMURF – Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing for Custom, High-Performance RF Electronics
Geoff Brennecka | gbrennec@mines.edu
Payam Nayeri | pnayeri@mines.edu
Modern wireless communications systems are largely built around radio frequency (RF) circuits, but despite the huge increase in the number of devices and bandwidth demands, these circuits are largely built from the same basic modular components that have been the basis for electrical engineering for decades. The goal of this work is to open up the design space for RF engineers by demonstrating that the components themselves can be further engineered using multimaterial additive manufacturing.
This work requires close collaboration between materials and electrical engineers in order to identify interesting designs, fabricate and characterize the associated materials into such designs, then measure their performance and collaboratively iterate this process.
The two faculty members associated with this project are both very interested in this collaborative research area and will be directly involved. Neither has a dedicated graduate student working directly on this topic, but each has graduate students whose projects are close enough that they can serve as effective trainers and mentors for the MURF students.
For more information:
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8608331
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8609291
Student Preparation
Qualifications
Interest in additive manufacturing and/or materials for custom RF devices.
Student is required to attend the basic lab safety training offered by Environmental Health and Safety at Mines.
Time Commitment
4hr/wk per student to make meaningful progress, but results will increase non-linearly with additional effort.
Skills/Techniques Gained
Extrusion-based additive manufacturing and powder processing of ceramics and associated measurement/characterization (e.g., particle size and density measurements, operation of furnaces, presses, mills, SEM, XRD, …). In addition, the student(s) will learn how to design, model, and analyze RF devices with heterogenous materials.
Mentoring Plan
PhD students will do the majority of in-lab training; faculty members will do the majority of technical planning / discussions / analysis with the MURF students, ideally in regular (~semi-weekly) meetings of all involved parties.