Development of a Ku-Band Corrugated Conical Horn Using 3-D Print Technology

Abstract

We present the development of a Ku-band (10-16 GHz) corrugated conical horn antenna using 3-D print technology or stereolithography. The antenna is printed using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a thermoplastic, and then coated with conductive aerosol paint. The designed antenna achieves a measured peak gain of 19.6 dBi at 16 GHz with a 1.92:1 VSWR from 11 to 18 GHz. It is shown that 3-D printing is capable of producing sufficient feature sizes that make operation in the microwave/millimeter-wave (MMW) bands possible.