Investigation of Liquid Metal and FDM 3D Printed Microwave Devices

Abstract

The paper proposed a new fabrication technique for microwave devices using liquid metal conductor and 3D printed dielectric containers. 3D printed conductive dielectric materials provide electrical connections to the liquid metal at the input and output ports. These input/ output ports and the dielectric container were analyzed to determine their impact on the RF performance. Simulation results of a WR62 rectangular waveguide transmission line, waveguide resonator, a three-pole iris filter and a horn antenna were presented. The RF performance achieved satisfactory RF performance validating the proposed fabrication concept.