Advanced Radio Magnetic Powder for Additive Manufacturing

To improve radome materials, design approaches, and manufacturing methods, in this Phase II SBIR effort, Voxtel will optimize low-loss wave-impedance-tunable and complex-dielectrically-tunable nanocomposites and will demonstrate highly reliable additive-manufacturing (AM) methods for fabricating radomes with heterogenous compositions and complex geometries. Proof-of-concept planar and complex-geometry structures will be fabricated and characterized. The materials will be shown to be capable of freespace-impedance matching in the electromagnetic (EM) wave frequencies from 10 MHz to 1,000 MHz, and gradient dielectric structures will be shown capable of performing wavefront phase compensation and focusing RF waves. Currently, manufacturers are limited in the EM properties they may impart to radome materials. Laminates constructed from dielectric materials—such as plastics, fiberglass, and wood—are the current state of the art, but the lack of a magnetic component in these materials makes wave-impedance matching extremely difficult or expensive. Furthermore, maintaining low loss (i.e., low insertion loss) of the transmitted signal while simultaneously controlling properties—such as the refractive index—is nearly impossible when traditional construction techniques are used. Voxtel has developed a method of formulating and printing nanocomposite materials that allows the materials to have variable EM properties across multiple length scales.