Project Details
Projekt
Additive PCB Manufacturing (PCB)
Subject Area
Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
Term
Funded in 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 568740589
The 3D additive Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing system enables the production of multilayer PCBs in a single operation. Both the substrate and the conductive tracks, and even passive components (coils, capacitors, and resistors), can be produced as part of the manufacturing process. Furthermore, the integration of integrated circuits (e.g., a microcontroller or a sensor amplifier) without bonding is possible by directly printing and thus contacting conductive tracks on the pads of microchips. This enables the simple integration of self-created and even the smallest ICs and, therefore, the designs of miniaturized electronic sensor systems. Waveguides for fast data transmission or antennas with excellent high-frequency properties can also be produced in this way. Dielectric printing ink, which contains silver nanoparticles, ensures high-quality PCBs and a specific lead resistance that differs only slightly from copper PCBs. The software included with the device enables collaboration between circuit and PCB design software and mechanical CAD tools to create very compact circuit and system designs. The system is embedded in the Central Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory (ZEITlab) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The ZEITlab is an organizational unit of the School of Computation, Information and Technology (SoCIT). Since 2022, it has been housed in the new TUM Electrical Engineering and Information Technology building on the Garching campus. The center consists of a clean room with an area of 950 m² and associated characterization laboratories. Its vision is to establish a "makerspace for microelectronics prototypes" that supports a wide range of research areas as a broad-based technology center of SoCIT. In the ZEITlab, proof-of-concept demonstrators in the field of electronics and sensor technology are realized on the basis of modern materials and components and made available for various fields of application. This type of "rapid prototyping" uses innovative processing and characterization technologies and is systematically supplemented by circuit design and modelling. ZEITlab provides a central and shared access to micro- and nanofabrication for a large number of research groups working on topics such as quantum and sensor technologies, micro-, opto-, and neuroelectronics, as well as hybrid nanosystems. The bundled infrastructure, therefore, enables an efficient transfer of technologies from basic research to engineering issues and applications.
DFG Programme
Major Research Instrumentation
Major Instrumentation
Additive PCB Manufacturing
Applicant Institution
Technische Universität München (TUM)
