Additive Manufacturing for RF Materials and Antennas

To reduce size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-c), military platforms have been evolving towards more integrated platforms that utilize all available space. For radiating systems, this will require exploring innovative design methods, materials and manufacturing approaches to realize cost-effective, customizable and conformal antennas. An attractive solution to this challenge is offered by additive manufacturing (AM). Recently commercial multi-material AM systems have been developed allowing users to print a wide range of commercial or custom materials without moving the part. This opens up the possibility of fabricating complete antenna systems using a single AM printer. However, a lack of suitable materials is hindering the applicability of this technology towards real-world applications. The objectives of this proposal are to develop high dielectric constant and high conductivity materials suitable for multimaterial AM systems. To this end, DeLUX Engineering will develop custom dielectrically loaded polymer filaments capable of achieving dielectric constants as high as 15 using polymer extrusion based printing. We will also demonstrate the feasibility of synthesizing high conductivity pastes using trace amounts of organic binders. In Phase II these new materials will be used to realize a fully AM fabricated antenna structure using a single AM printer in a fully automated process.