Satellite Ka-Band Additive Manufactured Antenna

A horn antenna operating from 18 to 31 GHz, for use in a reflector system was designed and fabricated using three methods. The first method used conventional machining from a block of aluminum, the second method used a metal 3D printing process, and the third method used a resin 3D printing process followed by copper electroplating. The antennas were tested in a compact antenna range and the performance between the three were compared. It was seen that the metal 3D printed antenna compared well with the machined antenna over the full frequency range. However, the resin 3D printed and plated antenna resulted in noticeably more loss than the other two antennas at the higher end of the frequency band.