Plastic and metal additive manufacturing technologies for microwave passive components up toKaband

Abstract

This paper illustrates the different possibilities given by additive manufacturing technologies for the creation of passive microwave hardware. The paper more specifically highlights a prototyping scheme where the 3D-printed plastic parts can be used as initial proofs of concept before considering more advanced 3D-printed parts (metal parts, for instance). First, a characterization campaign has been made on common plastics used by a 3D printer using the fused deposition modeling and material jetting (Polyjet©) technologies. The impact of the manufacturing strategy (high-speed or high-accuracy) on the part roughness, as well as on the dielectric material permittivity and loss tangent, has been specifically studied at 10 and 16 GHz. Based on a specifically optimized and deeply explained characterization method, the conductivity of a coating based on silver paint has also been characterized on such plastic parts at 10 and 40 GHz. These plastic materials and coating have been used for the creation of quasi-elliptic and tuning-free bandpass filters centered at 6 and 12 GHz and compared with a similar filter made of stainless steel by selective laser melting. Finally, a compact rectangularTE10to circularTE01mode converter also undergoes one prototyping step out of plastic before moving to an advanced part made out of stainless steel. This mode converter, which is made in a single part, is designed to operate from 28 to 36 GHz as a tuning-free final demonstrator.

Coupled Strip Lines with Highly Unbalanced Electromagnetic Coupling and their Use

“…In example 2, the necessity of getting the relative dielectric permittivities 2 17.2  , 3 2.42  is shown this way. Materials with those parameters can be manufactured with the help of additive technologies of multicomponent printing using different dielectrics with specified in advance components' contents in percent [25]. Another possible way -use multilayered substrates made from different available dielectrics with different thickness and dielectric permittivities, including the ones made with technologies of printing.…”

Application of Chemical Metallization of Photopolymer Structures Additive Technology in the Production of Components for Electronic Devices

“…One solution to this problem may be to cover the working surface with a conductive layer. The most common option is coating with special ink or silver paint with a further coating of copper by electroplating [8][9][10]. This approach is suitable for creating a certain class of low-frequency microwave electronics components but does not seem promising due to the difficulties of applying a uniform layer to complex surfaces of elements.…”

“…The manufacture of microwave components of complex shapes with a developed metal working surface and high accuracy and quality is carried out by the method detailed in the patent [8]. By 3D printing, a mandrel is made of a photopolymer with a determinedly complex surface.…”

Conception et expérimentation de dispositifs microondes didactiques par impression 3D plastique

“…La fin de la bande X semble être la limite fréquentielle atteignable avec les précisions de cette technique (3). L'impression par technique polyjet @ présente de meilleures précisions et des dispositifs fonctionnant jusqu'à 36 GHz ont pu être mesurés avec des performances satisfaisantes (4). Un filtre volumique modulaire en bande X conçu pour être facilement et rapidement assemblé a été réalisé avec cette dernière imprimante.…”