3-D printed non-developable surface conformal load-bearing antenna structures

Abstract

Prototypes of a special conformal load-bearing antenna structure (CLAS) which has non-developable surface, are designed, fabricated and tested in this work. A novel three-dimensional (3-D) printing technology and fabrication equipment based on micro-droplet spraying and metal laser sintering are proposed to create patch array and divider network on a non-developable curved rigid substrate. In order to compare with conventional technology (such as chemical etching), a planar CLAS prototype with two patches, operating frequency at 5 GHz, is designed and fabricated by two different technologies, the surface roughness, fabrication tolerance and EM performance are tested and compared. Finally, a spherical CLAS prototype with eight patches, operating frequency at 13 GHz, is designed and fabricated by the novel 3-D printing, measured EM performance demonstrate the applicability of additive manufacturing for this special CLAS.