Study of 3D-printed dielectric barrier windows for microwave applications

Abstract

3D printing technologies offer significant advantages over conventional manufacturing technologies for objects with complicated shapes. This technology provides the potential to easily manufacture barrier windows with a low reflection in a wide frequency band. Several 3D printing methods were examined for this purpose, and the dielectric properties of the various types of materials used for 3D printing were experimentally studied in the frequency range 26–190 GHz. These measurements show that the styrene-butadiene-styrene and polyamide plastics are suitable for broadband low-reflection windows for low-to-medium-power microwave applications. Two barrier windows with optimized surface shapes were printed and tested. Results demonstrate that the studied technique can fabricate windows with a reflection level below −18 dB in the frequency band up to 160 GHz. Studied windows can be used for spectroscopic tasks and other wideband microwave applications.