Toward Cost-Effective and Lightweight Doppler Radars: Papercraft-Based Components and Comparisons With Aluminum and 3-D Printed Alternatives

Doppler radar systems have an essential role in various applications, including aviation, weather forecasting, and military surveillance. However, their high fabrication costs and heavy weight may limit their utilization in rapid prototyping, small-scale applications, and seamless transportation. To address these challenges, a novel papercraft-based approach for producing the entire Doppler radar system’s horn antenna, hybrid tee, and short termination components in the X-band was investigated with details in this study, alongside conventional aluminum and 3-D printing methods. This article presents the first attempt to develop a Doppler radar using papercraft-based manufacturing. The papercraft-based approach is cost-effective, lightweight, flexible, and readily available, offering a promising route for improving and fabricating Doppler radar systems that are both affordable and accessible, particularly in resource-limited settings. The experimental results show that the papercraft-based components can perform comparably to conventional aluminum-based and 3-D-printed components, making it an innovative and cost-effective solution for fabricating Doppler radar systems.