3D Printed Copper Waveguides by Selective Electron Beam Melting Process for E-Band

This work evaluates 3D printed E-Band waveguides by selective electron beam melting process with two different scanning pattern approaches. One is the contouring and the other the hatching pattern which are used to draw the waveguide cross section layer wise. The measured signal attenuation can be significantly reduced to only about α ≈ 11-17 dB/m in E-Band by applying the contour strategy despite the relatively large macroscopic RMS surface roughness of R
_q
≳ 30 μm. Furthermore, a model based explanation for the measured results is proposed suggesting a distinct separation between microscopic structure geometry and surface roughness for E-Band frequencies and beyond.