Assessment of a 3D-Printed Aluminum Corrugated Feed Horn at 118.7503 GHz

Published

February 19, 2017

Author(s)

Josh Gordon, David R. Novotny, Ronald C. Wittmann, Michael H. Francis, Jeffrey R. Guerrieri, Periasamy Lavanya, Albin Gasiewski

Abstract

All-metal 3D printing is investigated as a viable option for millimeter wave applications. 3D printing is finding applications across many areas and may be a useful technology for antenna fabrication. The ability to rapidly fabricate custom antenna geometries may also help improve cub satellite prototyping and development time. However, the quality of an antenna produced using 3D printing must be considered if this technology can be relied upon. Here, we investigate a corrugated feed horn that is fabricated using the powder bead fusion process for use in the PolarCube cube satellite radiometer. AlSi10Mg alloy is laser fused to build up the feed horn, including the corrugated structure on the inner surface of the horn. The intricate corrugations, and tilted waveguide feed transition of this horn made 3D printing a compelling and interesting process to explore. Measurements were performed at the atmospheric oxygen line of 118.7503GHz with the NIST \ulinec}onfigurable \ulinero}botic \ulinem}illi\ulinem}eter- wave\ulinea}ntenna facility (CROMMA). A comparison of these measurements to theoretical predictions provides an assessment of the performance of the feed horn. A description of the 3D printing process is also given.

Proceedings Title

36th Annual Symposium of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA)

Volume

59

Issue

2

Conference Dates

October 15-20, 2017

Conference Location

Atlanta, GA, US

Pub Type

Conferences

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Citation

Gordon, J. , Novotny, D. , Wittmann, R. , Francis, M. , Guerrieri, J. , Lavanya, P. and Gasiewski, A. (2017), Assessment of a 3D-Printed Aluminum Corrugated Feed Horn at 118.7503 GHz, 36th Annual Symposium of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA), Atlanta, GA, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=923871 (Accessed April 25, 2024)