Micro-Computed Tomography to Assess the Processing Quality of the Additive Manufacturing of Spiral Microcoils

Additive manufactured polymers and metallized microstructures are widely used in the production of electronic components. However, such three-dimensional printed metallized electrical components inevitably have processing errors that affect their performance. It is vital to understand defects' effects on the performance of the final product. In this study, we simulated micro-computed tomography (CT) data. A spiral cavity is printed by stereolithography and spiral inductors with different numbers of turns are fabricated by injecting Gallium Indium liquid metal (EGaIn). Through the theoretical simulation of the spiral inductor and the characterization of the electrical performance, we found that the relative error in the simulation of 2.5-turn, 4.5-turn, and 6.5-turn spiral inductors is +30.6%, +13%, and +6%, respectively, compared with the experimental data. The CT data are obtained by a CT scanning microcoil and a reconstruction model with real structural features is established based on the data. The results show that the relative error between the reconstructed model with real defects and the experimental data is +10.4%, -3.7%, and -1.5%, respectively, which is closer to the experimental data. According to the CT data simulation that provides a more accurate theoretical prediction, the actual effect of a defect on the final product can be assessed. The difference between the experimental results and the theoretical simulation can be inferred from the reconstruction model.