Selective Laser Melting Design-to-Manufacturing Method for Integrated W-Band 3-D-Printed Feeds

This work proves, for the first time, the feasibility of 3-D printing dual-circular polarization monolithic W-band waveguide feed components. A two-step approach is adopted. First, a test batch of components is printed and measured in order to identify systematic manufacturing errors, with several characterized before and after chemical etching to assess its impact on electrical performance. Second, a monolithic fully integrated feed chain is manufactured using the feedback from the first step. The measured results show that the proposed workflow enables the realization of electrically large, mechanically complex components at W-band through Selective Laser Melting.