Speaker
Description
Introduction/Purpose
Development of Additive Manufacturing (AM) and ,in particular, Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) opens new horizons allowing the fabrication of parts, are limited or can not be produced in any conventional way.
Additive manufacturing presents the advantage of producing RF components with a high freedom of design while enabling the production of mm-wave (e.g. 60GHz-120GHz) antennas in one piece, as compared to machining, which requires at least one assembly step. Although, machining of thin wall structures is subject to local heating and parts deformation reducing the performances and/or possible shape and so applications. Using LPBF process, provides equivalent or better antenna performance, shorter production time, weight reduction, more complex geometries as a consequence and lower production costs.
The challenge is to manufacture the WG structure with precise geometry with small tolerances, high electrical conductivity, and most important to control the channel surface roughness.
Method
Selective Laser Melting used for fabrication the designed wave guide. Three alloys were investigated: Cu10Sn bronze, Al-12wt%Si and Scalmalloy. The optimized process to achieve the wave guide specification established. The investigation also focus on the post treatments: thermal post treatment for microstructure study related with mechanical properties, electrical conductivity and inner surface smoothing post treatment needed for such application.
| Speaker Country | Switzerland |
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