ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF METAL PASSIVE WAVEGUIDE COMPONENTS

Additive manufacturing (AM) allows the production of complex shape and structures without molds directly from a three-dimensional (3D) computer aided design (CAD) model. Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) is an AM technology that enables the manufacturing of 3D components from metal powders. It offers several advantages, such as the integration of RF functionalities in a single part with complex shape, minimization of mass and envelope, reduction of lead time and costs. However, the application of DMLS to the manufacturing of passive waveguide components is currenlty limited by some technological aspects. The most important factors to evaluate are roughness, accuracy, electrical conductivity and repeatability. In order to assess the impact of these parameters on the RF performance, test lines in Ka and Q-bands, and a resonant cavity in Ku/K band has been designed. Then, two different Ku/K-band filters have been designed and tested. An aluminum alloy (AlSi10Mg) and a titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) have been used in this work, both processed via an EOSINT M270 Xtended machine.