Direct writing methods created a revolution in the electronic industry due to their lower cost, fast processing and lower wasted material. Microstrip line is an important electronic component that transfers the signal and the foundation for the communication between multiple components in any circuit board. Therefore, studying its electromechanical behavior against thermal and mechanical stresses is necessary for real life applications. In this research, novel microstrip lines were printed on “Polyethylene Terephthalate” (PET) and “Polyimide” (PI) flexible substrates using an aerosol jet printer and dispensing system. An advanced post treatment technique was used to enhance the conductivity of the microstrip lines printed on low glass transition flexible PET substrate. Different microstrip line designs with various mesh ground planes were tested under mild and harsh mechanical bending and different environmental conditions and their losses were characterized. The results showed that the photonic curing enhanced the microstrip lines conductivity by 65% compared to the convectional curing. The in-situ resistance measurements during harsh bending demonstrated conclusively that the robustness of the printed microstrip lines increased as the filling percentage of the ground plane became lower. The aging at 85°C/85% RH had a significantly stronger effect on the microstrip lines conductivity compared to the aging at 85°C without humidity due to the changes in the printed ink’s microstructure and the increment in ionic conductivity. Thermal aging led to a reduction in the microstrip line’s ductility and the cracking became easier in the microstructure of the printed films. The resistance of a sample aged at 85°C increased by 81.7% after 10000 bending cycles compared to only 20.5% for a sample without thermal aging. Such findings provide important guidelines for those designing flexible hybrid electronics and for manufacturers who seek the assurance of these technologies for both maturing and reliable products.

This paper presents a systematic review of the performance of the Preference Selection Index (PSI) application in multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems based on PRISMA. This work extensively reviewed more than 100 studies to investigate the methodological bases of the PSI and its synergistic combination with other decision-making methodologies. Interestingly, the PSI is highly commended as one of the most straightforward applications with low computational effort, which implies that the PSI in this context is receiving wide attention for complex decisions and sensitive judgments, where assigning criteria weights is challenging. However, in some circumstances, the PSI mechanism in assigning weights becomes a drawback when the accuracy of the decision is crucial. However, despite the increased use of the PSI, there is still a lack of systematic evaluation of its methodological sensitivity of weighting assumptions, consistency, and comparative performance in the hybrid MCDM problems. Addressing these gaps will help make the PSI more accurate in the evolving landscape of decision-making techniques. This review underscores the wide use of the PSI, encouraging further research in terms of its applications and methodology enhancement, ensuring that the PSI remains a relevant option that evolves the complexity and sensitivity of decision-making in various areas.

Advanced packaging solutions for wide band-gap power devices such as SiC MOSFETs can help realize their full potential. Additively printed electronics present a promising solution to enable SiC packaging, providing an approach to reduce the parasitic inductance, miniaturize, and explore countless form factors. Although printed electronics have gained popularity in diverse electronic manufacturing fields, their application in high-power electronics remains largely unexplored. Herein, we aim to develop a planar high-power SiC module (>1.2kV) using printed electronics materials and processes. Moreover, we aim to assess the feasibility and reliability of printed electronics for power packaging. The results of device-package simulations, materials testing, and processing showed promising potential in meeting requirements for SiC power modules. Functional testing of the power modules shows performance that is in line with traditionally packaged modules. The functional test vehicles also pass high voltage isolation and partial discharge tests. However, the high contact resistance between the printed conductors and module surfaces is a limiting factor in achieving low on-resistance and high current capabilities. Tailored surfaces with pressure-assisted curing helped overcome this limit and achieve high current-carrying capacity and low on-resistance. Finally, the stress testing shows mixed results, and further improvement is needed.

Meshing of conventional PCB grounds refers to a process in which certain ground planes appear as copper lattices; regular openings are placed at regular intervals. The need for ground meshing for rigid PCBs has become minor with the development of micro-etching approaches. However, for flexible hybrid electronics, meshed grounds could offer some benefits, such as being unsusceptible to bending and conserving material and time. In this paper, we study how meshed ground planes affect the RF performance of straight microstrip lines. Simulations show meshed grounds with more than 50% filling produce good RF performance. When the filling percentage of the meshed grounds is less than 50%, ripples in the insertion loss start to appear. To confirm the simulation results, dispensing and aerosol jet printing systems were used to fabricate silver ink microstrip lines on PET substrates with different meshed ground patterns. The experimental measurement confirmed the simulation results. Bend testing was carried out to investigate the impact of mesh grounds on the RF performance of the microstrip lines after bending. The results demonstrate that the less-filled meshed ground samples are less susceptible to bending. As an extension of the work, we developed an empirical model to modify the microstrip line’s width to smoothen the insertion loss ripples while maintaining the bending superiority. To experimentally validate the model, predictions from this empirical model were used to fabricate and measure some samples.

This paper presents an experimental demonstration of coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines fabricated using Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) on high-purity fused silica (HPFS) glass substrates. The work addresses the growing need for low-loss, high-frequency interconnects compatible with additive manufacturing. The fabrication process is outlined, emphasizing key technical aspects and challenges of printing on glass. Two commercial silver nanoparticle inks, Dowa and NovaCentrix, were evaluated. CPW structures with 20 μm trace-to-ground spacing were successfully printed and characterized up to 30GHz. Measured insertion losses were 0.11 dBmm⁻¹ for Dowa ink and 0.15 dBmm⁻¹ for NovaCentrix ink. These results demonstrate the feasibility of combining AJP with HPFS substrates for high-resolution, high-frequency applications. Overall, this approach shows strong potential for developing low-loss RF interconnects on advanced glass platforms, enabling integration into next-generation electronic and communication systems, such as radio-on-glass front-end modules, transparent and phased-array antennas, and high-speed optical transceivers.