Volumetric 3D-printed antennas, manufactured via selective polymer metallization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel additive manufacturing method for creating volumetric 3D-printed antennas on curved surfaces, combining polymer 3D printing with selective electrochemical metallization to achieve high-performance electromagnetic devices.

Contribution

The paper presents a new fabrication approach for volumetric antennas using multi-material 3D printing and selective metallization, enabling custom, high-quality RF antennas on complex geometries.

Findings

Antennas demonstrated radiation performance comparable to traditional methods.

The process allows for tailored antenna designs on curved surfaces.

Selective electrochemical deposition yields high-quality conductive layers.

Abstract

Additive manufacturing paves new ways to an efficient exploration of the third space dimension, providing advantages over conventional planar architectures. In particular, volumetric electromagnetic antennas can demonstrate superior characteristics, outperforming their planar counterparts. Here a new approach to the fabrication of electromagnetic devices is developed and applied to antennas, implemented on curved surfaces. Highly directive and broadband antennas were 3D-printed on hemispherical supports. The antenna skeleton and the support were simultaneously printed with different polymer materials - PLA mixed with graphene flakes and pure PLA, respectfully. Weakly DC-conductive graphene PLA-based skeleton was post-processed and high-quality conductive copper layer was selectively electrochemically deposited on it. The antenna devices were found to demonstrate radiation performance, similar to that achievable with conventional fabrication approaches. However, additive manufacturing of RF antennas provides superior capabilities of constructing tailor-made devices with properties, pre-defined by non-standardized end users.