Design and analysis of 3D-printed hybrid couplers for D-band applications

Abstract

This work focuses on the impact of the build orientation on additively manufactured waveguide-based hybrid couplers for D-band frequency range and relates it to other sources of uncertainty within the overall manufacturing process and measurement instrumentation for the D-band frequency range. The designed specimens are first printed from UV curable photopolymer resin and subsequently metal coated by an electroless silver plating process, which in turn is improved by making use of the slotted waveguide approach. Although the requirements toward geometrical precision to achieve phase errors below 10° are in an order of 0.1 mm, a desktop grade DLP printer is utilized in this work in order to point out the prospects and limitations of additive manufacturing. Furthermore, waveguide paths with bends are part of the model and their impact on the measured attenuation is estimated explicitly. Despite this narrow field of tolerances, one specimen could have been realized, which achieves a measured output magnitude imbalance of 0.7 dB over the frequency range from 120 to 155 GHz while at the same time exhibiting a phase deviation of only <10° from the desired 90°. With these demonstrated results, the proposed approach provides suitability for future applications in the D-band frequency range.