Additive manufacturing of 3D substrate integrated waveguide components

Abstract

The implementation of fully three‐dimensional (3D) substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) components by using an additive manufacturing technique is demonstrated for the first time. In particular, a 3D printing process based on the t‐glase filament has been adopted. 3D printing allows for the manufacturing of very complex shapes in a few hours, thus leading to a one‐day prototyping time for microwave components. To characterise the electromagnetic properties of the 3D printed material, a microstrip lines technique has been adopted. To fully demonstrate the potential of the proposed fabrication process, a SIW cavity resonator and a 3D SIW interconnect with four E‐plane bends have been fabricated and tested.