A Low-cost Light-weight 3D-printed Choke Ring for Multipath Mitigation for GNSS Antennas

A low-cost light-weight 3D-printed copper coated choke ring is presented and experimentally demonstrated to have similar performance to a fully metallic choke ring. The conventional metallic choke ring is the standard ground plane used in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) reference antennas to reject multipath signals. While the choke ring greatly enhances the performance of the antenna, it has the disadvantage of being heavy, bulky, and expensive. One method to reduce the weight and cost of the choke ring, while maintaining the same performance as the metallic structure, is to build the structure using a low-cost, light-weight dielectric material and coating the outside with an electric conductor. In this paper, a prototype of a novel 3D-printed choke ring made from polylactic acid (PLA) plastic and coated with copper tape is fabricated and tested. The novel choke ring is demonstrated to have the same performance as an otherwise heavy and expensive metallic choke ring.