A study of the additive manufacturing technology for RF/microwave components

In this work an overview of the different additive manufacturing techniques will be presented. Each technique will be compared in terms of dimensional accuracy, surface roughness, and quality taking into account the most suitable applications for each one. Then, two applications will be studied: (a) fast prototyping of waveguide component designs using professional grade 3D printers for electromagnetic validation purposes, and (b) 3D printing of waveguide hardware products as a production technology using production grade 3D printers. The first application will be studied with a research center approach, where many different designs are manufactured in order to validate a design technique or a model. The second application will be studied with a company approach, where the best quality at a lower price is pursued.