Mm-wave antennas and components: Profiting from 3D-printing

The goal of this manuscript is to show the potential of additive manufacturing (AM) to produce cost-effective high-performance passive mm-wave components and antennas. We focus on the particular AM technique developed by SWISSto12 based on the so called Stereolithography (SLA), which consists on the 3D-printing of a skeleton of the component using a non-conductive polymer. Chemical copper plating is then applied in order to make all component surfaces RF-conductive. One of the most relevant advantages associated to this approach stems from its ability to produce low-weight monolithic devices. Two 3D-printed RF-devices operating at mm-waves are here presented: a Ka-band radiating element and a V-band orthomode-transducer. Both devices have been firstly designed using full-wave solvers, then manufactured and finally validated through measurements.