A lightweight waveguide horn antenna made via 3D printing and conductive spray coating

Abstract

Herein, a lightweight, rapidly-manufactured X-band waveguide horn antenna, made by 3D printing and conductive spray coating, is proposed. The proposed antenna has the advantages of being low-cost and lightweight and can be rapidly manufactured with an easy construction process. To metalize the inside of the horn antenna, the antenna CAD model is split into four pieces. The four assembly parts are 3-D printed with polylactic acid (PLA) using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) method. After 3D printing, each part is metalized via conductive spray coating. Last, the sprayed parts are assembled using polycarbonate bolts and nuts. Experimental results show that the antenna weight is only 19.3% of a commercial computerized numerically controlled (CNC) machined metallic antenna. To verify the antenna performance, the reflection coefficient and gain characteristics of the proposed 3D printing horn antenna are compared with those of an aluminum horn antenna of the same size.