Broadband Circuit Board Interconnects Based on Anisotropic Conductive Adhesives

Commonly, printed circuit board (PCB) interconnects are realized as plated through-hole arrangements or even by means of connectors. To avoid the associated complexity and reduce the manufacturing effort and cost, we propose as an alternative the use of anisotropic conductive adhesives (ACAs). The approach is especially suitable for systems with high integration density and challenging circuit complexity, such as phased array antennas. Two different commercially available ACAs are considered to realize interconnects - here between two single-layer PCBs. The measurements performed up to 40 GHz yield transmission coefficients exceeding −1.4 dB and reflection coefficients below −13 dB, thus confirming the validity of the approach.