3D digital manufacturing and characterization of antennas integrated in mobile handset covers

This paper describes a study of dielectric and metallic 3D printing (additive manufacturing) processes that are candidates for digital manufacturing of integrated mobile phone client antennas. The integration of antennas into the packaging of commercial electronics is one of the important applications of emerging digital manufacturing techniques. A novel test fixture for in-situ characterization of digitally manufactured integrated antennas and handset covers is presented along with experimental results for prototypes that were manufactured using different printing processes.