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Effect and experiment of curvature radius of 3‐D printed conformal load‐bearing antenna array on EM performance
Author(s) -
Wang Chao,
Li Peng,
Ren Zemin,
Meng Fanbo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of rf and microwave computer‐aided engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1099-047X
pISSN - 1096-4290
DOI - 10.1002/mmce.22130
Subject(s) - fabrication , materials science , substrate (aquarium) , curvature , radius of curvature , planar , radius , antenna (radio) , 3d printing , conformal map , surface roughness , etching (microfabrication) , optoelectronics , composite material , computer science , electrical engineering , engineering , geometry , mathematics , computer security , medicine , oceanography , mean curvature , alternative medicine , computer graphics (images) , pathology , mean curvature flow , layer (electronics) , geology
Prototypes of a special conformal load‐bearing antenna array (CLAA) which has nondevelopable surface, are designed, fabricated, and tested, and the effect of the substrate curvature radius on its EM performance is also researched in this work. A novel three‐dimensional (3‐D) printing technology and fabrication equipment based on micro‐droplet spraying and metal laser sintering are proposed to create patch array and divider network on a non‐developable curved rigid substrate. In order to compare with conventional technology (such as chemical etching), a planar CLAA prototype with two patches, operating frequency at 5GHz, is designed and fabricated by two different technologies, the surface roughness, fabrication tolerance, and EM performance are tested and compared. Finally, a spherical CLAA prototype with eight patches, operating frequency at 13GHz, is designed and fabricated by the novel 3D printing, measured EM performance demonstrate the applicability of additive manufacturing for this special CLAA.