Rapid Prototyping of Low Loss 3D Printed Waveguides for Millimeter-Wave Applications

Traditional hollow metallic waveguide manufacturing techniques are readily capable of producing components with high-precision geometric tolerances, yet generally lack the ability to customize individual parts on demand or to deliver finished components with low lead times. This paper proposes a Rapid-Prototyping (RP) method for relatively low-loss millimeter-wave hollow waveguides produced using consumer-grade stereolithographic (SLA) Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology, in conjunction with an electroless metallization process optimized for acrylate-based photopolymer substrates. To demonstrate the capabilities of this particular AM process, waveguide prototypes are fabricated for the W-and D-bands. The measured insertion loss at W-band is between 0.12 dB/in to 0.25 dB/in, corresponding to a mean value of 0.16 dB/in. To our knowledge, this is the lowest insertion loss figure presented to date, when compared to other W-Band AM waveguide designs reported in the literature. Printed D-band waveguide prototypes exhibit a transducer loss of 0.26 dB/in to 1.01 dB/in, with a corresponding mean value of 0.65 dB/in, which is similar performance to a commercial metal waveguide.