On the Manufacturing Process of a Single-Step Fully 3D Printed Conformal Patch Antenna

NinjaFlex and Electrifi are two popular 3D-printing filaments with unique material properties. Electrifi is a conductive filament which is useful for 3D printing digital electronic interconnects as well as antenna structures. Meanwhile, NinjaFlex is a flexible filament which, when used as an antenna substrate, supports the fabrication of conformal antennas. Previously, Electrifi or thin copper foil structures have been laminated (attached) to NinjaFlex substrates using adhesives. This paper presents a multi-material technique for directly 3D-printing Electrifi and NinjaFlex together, in a single print job, on a single-extruder printer. The antenna and substrate layers are thermally bonded to one another, during the printing process, with no adhesives added.