Additive manufactured W-band waveguide components

Abstract

This paper presents several W-band (75–110 GHz) WR-10 waveguide components fabricated using both direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) and stereolithography (SLA), in aluminum, nickel and copper alloys and metal-coated plastic (MCP). The RF performance and surface roughness are measured, and the loss due to surface roughness quantified. The measured loss at 95 GHz ranges from 0.055 dB/cm for the copper-plated plastic waveguides to 0.37 dB/cm for the nickel alloy. From a loss budget study, it is found that standard models do not accurately predict loss due to surface roughness for very rough surfaces. This paper presents the current state-of-the-art in available additive manufactured (AM) waveguide components at W-band.