Investigation of Dielectric Properties of Printed Material for Capacitor Application

This paper investigates the dielectric characteristics of the material used to make capacitor in fused filament fabrication technology. The characteristics of the capacitor made of PLA (Polylactic Acid) as dielectric are examined. Using a 3D printer, dielectric samples are created in the form of a disk 8.6 mm in diameter. Preliminary samples revealed that the surfaces of the printed samples are rough, after which the mechanical treatment of the samples is applied. The thicknesses of the samples before and after polishing are 1 mm and 0.7 mm, respectively. Epoxy electrodes are applied to the dielectric disks on both surfaces to produce the parallel plate capacitors. The capacitance of the fabricated capacitors is measured in the low frequency range, from 0.1 Hz to 200 kHz. The dissipation characteristics of the capacitor are examined, and a measured average value of tangent loss is 0.007. The printed dielectric samples without the electrodes are used to investigate their ability to withstand voltages up to 6 kV. The measurement results confirmed that the used PLA material is suitable for the fabrication of the capacitor with good characteristics.