Additive manufacturing of novel metal microwave components for space application
This thesis presents the design of novel waveguide components, including filters and antennas specifically adapted to Additive Manufacturing (AM). The design freedom of 3-D printing allows passive components to have various advantages, such as enhanced performance, reduced weight and size, integrated different functions, part consolida tion, and elimination of assembly over traditionally manufactured devices. The ben efits of metal AM are particularly important in space applications where low weight, small size, thermal stability, and high level of robustness are always crucial considera tions. Three different filter models and one antenna model were designed for operation within the Ku/K/Ka-bands. Namely, wideband multimode waveguide filters using de formed elliptical cavity resonators (four variations of resonators and topologies), dual band multimode waveguide filters using elliptical cylinder cavity resonators, multiband waveguide filters using an in-band transmission zeros approach (four variations of res onators and topologies), and integrated wideband waveguide diplexer and Continuous Transverse Stub (CTS) antenna array. The proposed models were experimentally vali dated using prototypes manufactured with Selective Laser Melting (SLM). The prototypes were manufactured in one part where possible to investigate monolithic fabrication. The printing materials included AlSi10Mg and commercially pure copper. Some of the copper prototypes were electro-polished to examine the effect of surface post-processing on insertion loss. The measured performance and manufacturing quality are analysed in detail, and improvements for optimising designs for AM are proposed where appropriate.
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