RF Characterization of flexible printed circuits up to 40 GHz

Flexible printed circuits show great potential for applications due to additive-type fabrication, ease of integration into devices and cost effectiveness. In the microwave frequency range, they mostly suffer from significant losses and cannot compete with their rigid PCB counterparts. In this work, we assess the performance of transmission lines from two different low cost flexible printed circuit fabrication techniques at frequencies up to 40 GHz. We show that transmission lines from laminated aluminum on PET show significant performance advantages compared to more conventional screen printed lines made using silver ink.