Wideband Microstrip to 3-D-Printed Air-Filled Waveguide Transition Using a Radiation Probe

Abstract

In this letter, a novel wideband microstrip to additively fabricated waveguide transition is presented. The proposed design takes advantage of the flexibility of 3-D printing to realize a highly integrated transition from the microstrip line on a printed circuit board (PCB) to an air-filled waveguide using an additively manufactured radiating probe. The idea is experimentally verified by the realization of an exemplary transition working within the X-band at f 0 = 10.5 GHz. The measured performance of the back-to-back transition proves its usefulness and possibility of utilization in highly integrated PCB-waveguide circuits. A PolyJet printing technology with copper electroplating was used in combination with PCB on microwave grade laminate. A bandwidth of f H / f L = 1.8 was obtained with the impedance match better than 9.5 dB and in-band insertion loss per transition below 1.1 dB.

Low-cost fully additively manufactured passive microwave components exploiting available 3D flexibility

“…One of the often-used schemes for additive manufacturing of microwave components 4 , 27 is a two steps process requiring firstly printing the design using dielectric material and secondly deposition of conductive material. Nevertheless, the circuits shown in literature are usually waveguide structures 20 , 25 , 27 or transmission line type circuits, where the circuit mosaic is in a form of a printed circuit board 13 – 15 , and the additively manufactured part is an enclosure serving as a ground plane/planes for suspended microstrip or stripline technique. In this paper, we present and a PCB-less approach where components are designed in strip transmission line technique with a focus put on exploiting the third geometrical dimension towards high electrical performance as the fabrication employs dielectric 3D printing and selective metallization.…”

“…Recent advances in mechanical engineering have enabled obtaining a printing resolution of tens of micrometer, which is of the same order as Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) 17 , 18 at a fraction of the AJP cost. One of the potential applications for which the VP technology might be well suited is the realization of microwave components 19 , 20 when coupled with suitable (non)selective metallization technique. Post-processing of printed parts is necessary as they are made of non-conductive polymer.…”

Compact Microstrip Line to Rectangular Waveguide Transition Using Corrugated Substrate Integrated Waveguide

“…Reference [9] does not require via holes or shaped dielectric, while double side printed circuits are needed which will increase fabrication costs. References [10][11][12] require via holes, and references [12][13][14] require a shaped dielectric. However, in this work, no double side printed circuits, via holes, or shaped dielectric are required, thus, the proposed transition is more applicable in THz bands.…”

“…In [9], the MSL-to-RWG transition is realized by through ground patch coupling, and a waveguide step is used for broadband matching. In [10], a radiation probe is employed for coupling. Wideband H-plane transitions can be achieved in [9,10]; however, double side printed circuits [9] and via holes [10] are required, which will increase fabrication costs.…”

“…In [10], a radiation probe is employed for coupling. Wideband H-plane transitions can be achieved in [9,10]; however, double side printed circuits [9] and via holes [10] are required, which will increase fabrication costs.…”