Prototypes of a special conformal load‐bearing antenna array (CLAA) which has nondevelopable surface, are designed, fabricated, and tested, and the effect of the substrate curvature radius on its EM performance is also researched in this work. A novel three‐dimensional (3‐D) printing technology and fabrication equipment based on micro‐droplet spraying and metal laser sintering are proposed to create patch array and divider network on a non‐developable curved rigid substrate. In order to compare with conventional technology (such as chemical etching), a planar CLAA prototype with two patches, operating frequency at 5GHz, is designed and fabricated by two different technologies, the surface roughness, fabrication tolerance, and EM performance are tested and compared. Finally, a spherical CLAA prototype with eight patches, operating frequency at 13GHz, is designed and fabricated by the novel 3D printing, measured EM performance demonstrate the applicability of additive manufacturing for this special CLAA.
A tolerance analysis approach based on interval arithmetic (IA) is proposed for heterogeneous three-dimensional (3D) printed patch antennas. Four key parameters-patch length, width, substrate thickness, and material properties-are considered that can introduce errors in the analysis results. Investigating the comprehensive effect of these parameters on resonant frequency and the E/H pattern of the patch is difficult and time-consuming when classical numerical simulations are employed. Thus, in this work, the four parameters are modeled as interval variables, and the equations between error and resonant frequency and the E/H pattern are derived using IA. Then, for the given tolerances (error intervals), the corresponding resonant frequency interval and E/H pattern interval are calculated using the proposed approach and compared with HFSS simulation results. Some samples of the patch antenna are fabricated via a self-developed heterogeneous 3D printer, which employs ink injection and laser sintering to fabricate the patch and the microstrip; furthermore, ultraviolet (UV) resin injection and curing are used to fabricate the substrate. The transmission performance of the samples is evaluated by comparing simulation and measurement results to verify the effectiveness of the proposed IA-based approach.
In this study, a novel interval analysis (IA) approach for linear arrays with element pattern tolerance is proposed. This study differentiates itself from the classic interval analysis (CIA) method because it focuses on the effects of the array element (e.g., patch) pattern tolerance on the antenna array pattern; the tolerance may be caused by fabrication errors in the element. The closed-form pattern expressions of the element (e.g., patch) and array are deduced by the interval arithmetic method. To mitigate the interval extension (also referred to as the overestimation problem) caused by the dependency problem, Taylor expansion and matrix-based interval analysis (TMIA) methods are proposed and implemented in this study. A set of numerical examples is reported and analysed to indicate the effectiveness of the proposed TMIA approach with the results of Monte Carlo (MC) and CIA methods, as well as to indicate its potential capabilities and advantages in the actual application of industrial antenna arrays.INDEX TERMS Antenna array, element pattern, interval analysis (IA), overestimation, patch, tolerance analysis.
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