Prospects of wire bonding as an approach for contacting additive manufactured Aerosol Jet printed structures

Additive manufacturing can be a truly transformative force for manufacturing flexibility by cutting prototyping and developing time, enabling complex shapes and structures, and reducing material waste. The growing demand for 3D electronic devices and customized electronic components as well as for a high level of integration can be met by 3D Aerosol Jet printing. This versatile maskless printing-method offers a broad range of application for fine pitch structures on various substrates. In order to apply Aerosol Jet printing in complex and highly integrated devices, connections between printed structures and active components such as sensors or LEDs, as well as to the peripheral package need to be established. In this context wire bonding bears the chance as a most cost-effective and flexible interconnect technology for assembling a vast range of semiconductor packages with Aerosol Jet printed circuits.