A D–band horn antenna made by a proprietary metallization process of photopolymer 3D–prints

We present a horn antenna with 20dBi gain in the D–band between 110 and 170 GHz manufactured by metallizing a template fabricated by photopolymer–based 3D printing. Specifically, we used an advanced proprietary metallization process for the deposition of high quality copper films with good adhesion on polymer and insulating inorganic substrates such as glass and ceramics. The bulk conductivity of the coating is in excess of 30% of that of bulk copper, the surface is smooth with an intrinsic roughness of better than 50 nm, leading to low RF loss. The measured performance of the antenna is in excellent agreement with ab–initio simulations.