Selective Laser Sintering Manufacturing as a Low Cost Alternative for Flat-Panel Antennas in Millimeter-Wave Bands

Abstract

In this paper, the capabilities of Selective Laser Sintering metal 3D-Printing technology to achieve a lightweight and cost-effective flat panel antenna in the millimeter wave band are studied. Specifically, two identical dual-band $4\times 4$ array antennas working in the K and Ka bands have been manufactured; one with Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and one using computer numerical control (CNC). Measured performance of the SLS antenna prototype is benchmarked with the performance of the previously measured CNC antenna. Experimental results reveal the strengths and weaknesses of this particular low-cost additive manufacturing technique with respect to traditional subtractive manufacturing techniques.

Keywords

• Additive manufacturing
• high-efficiency wideband single-layer antenna array
• Ka-band
• selective metal laser sintering
• SLS technique
• aluminum alloy