Hybrid Manufacturing with FDM Technology for Enabling Power Electronics Component Fabrication

The introduction of Kapton coated wires within a printed substrate presents the opportunity to design and fabricate power electronics components. Preventing dielectric breakdown of the printed substrate, the ultrasonic embedding approach enables complex geometrical embedding through customized software. This work presents the effective embedding of large diameter (14 AWG) kapton coated litz wire into polycarbonate (PC) substrate. Custom software allowed for generation of embedding toolpaths directly from the CAD model of the designed coupon. Results showed the most successful embedding paths were circular pre-formed cavities. Through characterization of a myriad of printed samples, an approach was developed for embedding large diameter wire. Through the use of the Foundry Multi3D System, the increased complexity of embedded electronic parts can further impulse the implementation of hybrid additive manufacturing in large scale applications.