Wideband high‐gain millimetre/submillimetre wave antenna using additive manufacturing. Issue 11 (30th July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gu, Chao; Gao, Steven; Sanz Izquierdo, Benito; Gibbons, Gregory J.; Young, Paul R.; Parker, Edward A.; Qin, Fan; Wen, Geyi; Cheng, Zhiqun; Geng, Youlin; Liu, Ying
• Is Part Of: IET microwaves, antennas & propagation. Volume 12:Issue 11(2018)
• Page Start: 1758
• Page End: 1764
• Publication Date: 2018-07-30
• Subjects: broadband antennas -- submillimetre wave antennas -- millimetre wave antennas -- impedance matching -- dielectric materials -- three‐dimensional printing -- dielectric waveguides -- antenna feeds; wideband high‐gain millimetre wave antenna -- wideband high‐gain submillimetre wave antenna -- additive manufacturing -- wideband high‐gain resonant cavity antenna -- millimetre wave band -- submillimetre wave band -- RCA antenna -- AM techniques -- partially reflecting surface -- impedance matching layers -- fabrication techniques -- dielectric material -- metallic layer -- metal three‐dimensional printing -- high‐speed wireless communications -- millimetre‐wave frequencies -- submillimetre‐wave frequencies -- frequency 30 GHz -- gain 3 dB; Microwaves -- Periodicals; Microwave antennas -- Periodicals; Antennas (Electronics) -- Periodicals; Radio wave propagation -- Periodicals; Microwave communication systems -- Periodicals; 621.381305
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-map.2018.5412
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8725

Abstract

Abstract : This study presents a novel design of a wideband high‐gain resonant cavity antenna (RCA) for millimetre and submillimetre wave bands, and its fabrication using additive manufacturing (AM). The proposed RCA antenna consists of a partially reflecting surface and three impedance matching layers fed by a waveguide. AM techniques are utilised to fabricate the design operating at 30 GHz. Two fabrication techniques are assessed for printing the antenna. The first technique is based on printing a dielectric material and fully coating the parts with a metallic layer, while the second technique involves printing the parts in a single process using metal three‐dimensional printing. The first technique offers a lightweight solution while the second technique can print the whole model in one run. The antenna design is investigated by both simulations and experiments. The measured results show a 3 dB gain bandwidth of about 10%, and high gain over 15 dBi for all the three resulting antennas. Good agreement between simulation and measurement is obtained. The antenna is of low cost and achieved good performance in terms of wide bandwidth and high gain, thus it is potentially useful for high‐speed wireless communications at millimetre‐wave and sub‐millimetre‐wave frequencies.