A 3D-Printed Lightweight Low-Cost UWB Antenna Designed by Dimension-Expanded Superformula

This letter proposes a lightweight low-cost antenna designed by dimension-expanded superformula for the ultra-wideband (UWB) application. The classic two-dimensional (2D) superformula is extended to the three-dimensional (3D) domain by introducing two additional geometric parameters to represent third-dimensional variations, thereby enhancing the degree of design freedom. By parameterizing the antenna's profile using the proposed 3D superformula, the proposed antenna's bandwidth covers the entire UWB spectrum. The antenna is characterized by the equivalent circuit model and characteristic modal analysis (CMA). The selective laser melting (SLM) is used to fabricate the proposed antenna of a complex stripwise structure at a very low cost. The antenna prototype has a 13.4-gram weight, 1.60 bandwidth-volume ratio (BVR), less than 3 dB gain ripple, and achieves 1.31 – 18 GHz (VSWR < 2.5). By extending the classic 2D superformula to 3D, significant potential is expected to be explored in superformula-defined antennas.