High-Temperature Additively Manufactured C-Band Antennas Using Material Jetting of Zirconia and Micro-Dispending of Platinum Paste

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables the development of rapid, low-cost prototypes for ad-hoc and on-demand manufacturing to repair and keep up the continuous operation of systems, especially in time-sensitive scenarios where the system recovery cannot wait for the shipment of new components. Therefore, the industry, military, and academia continue to invest in these technologies to potentially achieve novel 3D geometries based on high-temperature dielectric and conductors to endure harsh environments, such as commonly found in the oil and gas, defense, and aerospace sectors. This paper reports the electromagnetic properties of 3D-printed Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) for 2-6 GHz and the DC and RF effective conductivity of sintered platinum ink, where the dissipative losses of the additively manufactured coplanar waveguides (CPWs) are less than 0.05 dB/mm when the frequency is below 4 GHz. In addition, the AM CPWs are exposed to thermal cycling up to 600 °C to study the material's thermal fatigue and potential degradation. However, the samples do not exhibit appreciable degradation after thermal cycling. Also, a two-layer back-fed antenna based on 3D-printed YSZ and platinum ink is designed, manufactured, and tested. Results show a measured gain of 2.5 dBi and a front-back ratio of 9.6 dB at 4.1 GHz.