Volume Manufacturing of 3D Printed GRIN Lenses

This paper explores the viability of production scale additive manufacturing of 3D printed Gradient Refractive Index Lenses. Utilizing Fortify's suite of production tools for 3D printing, a production run of 20 62 mm Luneburg lenses, designed with a mid-frequency gain of 22.4 dBi at 22 GHz, was carried out and measured for variability in boresight gain. With a manufacturing yield of 95% and a measured maximum deviation of ±0.16 dBi, the sample run of Luneburg Lenses indicates strong and competitive performance repeatability at production scale manufacturing levels.