Design and fabrication of geometrically complicated multiband microwave devices using a novel integrated 3D printing technique

Abstract

In this work a novel fast and efficient three dimensional (3D) printing technique is presented for prototyping and fabrication of 3D microwave structures to print both the conductive nanoparticle ink together with the dielectric material in an integrated process. This facilitates the fabrication of complicated 3D electromagnetic (EM) structures such as wide range of different multiband antennas and microwave devices. The process includes characterization of conductive ink and polymer based substrate to ensure proper RF, electrical, thermal and mechanical performances of both substrate and the ink. As most of the printed devices are relatively simple single band systems, in this work in order to demonstrate the performance of the proposed 3D printing technique, a geometrically complicated multiband meander line 3D dipole antenna is printed, tested and measured results are compared with simulations to verify the accuracy of the fabrication technique. Good agreement between measured and simulated results shows the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed fabrication technique. This not only provides a low cost, environmentally friendly integrated fabrication process but also enables us to use the technique on geometrically complicated multiband EM devices.