Lost-shell casting for rapid prototyping in RF and microwave applications

Abstract

Lost-shell casting as a novel fabrication technique is examined, providing the durability of solid metal components with the shape flexibility of additive manufacturing. The feasibility of lost-shell casting is established for use in microwave and RF applications. A well known, standard rectangular cavity resonator design was used to validate this novel method of fabrication. Using lost-shell casting, a cavity resonator with a quality factor of 2200 was constructed. The results shown in this work confirm the validity of lost-shell casting as a novel method of rapid fabrication for completely metalised components in RF and microwave applications.