High Speed Digital Signaling in Printed, Planar Microwave Connectors with Multiple Signal Lines

Advances in additive manufacturing have led to demonstrations of printed electronics with new form factors (i.e. flexible, conformal, or embedded). Recent research has reported the development of printed, planar connectors that can be integrated with additively fabricated electronics [1]. A printed connector can be designed to support multiple format signals (RF, digital, DC), thus offering the designer the ability to customize connectors that are tailored to a printed circuit board. Prior work reported on the frequency response of these connectors for RF applications. This work reports on modeling the digital signal integrity of these connectors through time domain analysis. Circuit models have been developed to predict the eye diagrams, bathtub curves, Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) and Time Domain Transmission (TDT) of these printed connectors.