Session: 16-01-01: Poster Session: NSF-Funded Research (Grad & Undergrad)

Paper Number: 100212

100212 - Ultra-Light Antennas via Charge Programmed Deposition Additive Manufacturing 

Antennas are essential components of all radio equipment that radiate and transmit energy as electromagnetic waves. Next-generation wireless communications such as 5G/6G, Internet of things (IoT), small satellite communications, etc., necessitate lightweight, low-profile, and high-performance antennas. These emerging applications drive innovations in not only antenna design but also evolutions in antenna manufacturing techniques.

 

The manufacturing of antennas is traditionally accomplished through printed circuit board (PCB) processes, injection molding, and computer numerical control (CNC) machining. The resulting antenna designs are limited to relatively simple planar 2D layouts necessitating excessive structural materials, and hence weight. Antenna designs have begun to utilize additive manufacturing (AM) to integrate 3D, corrugations, septums, and incorporate waveguides to improve antenna size, weight, and electromagnetic performance. However, the designs have also been limited by the AM process to single materials (all-dielectric or all-metal) as opposed to the composite metal-dielectric traditional PCB processes can achieve. Additionally, all current AM processes based on material extrusion are limited in toolpath complexity, making antenna array fabrication challenging for 3D electronic architectures, and they require incorporating excessive structural material weight due to limitations in printer resolution (>100 μms) and the inability of printer feedstocks to support their own weight. Multi-process AM of antennas is possible, but the complex, bespoke combination of techniques (CNC, SLA, Wire EDM, and Mold injection), including the requisite alignment and optimization necessary, limit its broad applicability to other designs.

 

While printing electronic components are still in its early stage, additive manufacturing (of structural materials in the past decade has realized sophisticated 3D architected lattice materials with an interconnected network of truss-like unit cells, which allows designers to access materials with ultra-lightweight, yet mechanically functional materials. Translating these design concepts to produce electronics is compelling. Incorporating such concepts can significantly benefit multilayer antennas that incorporate multiple mixed layers of dielectric laminate and metallic traces, such as microstrip antenna arrays and transmitarrays. However, this requires the complex interpenetration of metal and dielectric, which is beyond what traditional PCB microfabrication and conventional AM techniques can achieve.

 

Here we report the use of charge programmed 3D printing to develop novel lightweight antennas seamlessly integrating metal and dielectric into complex 3D layouts. We explore the incorporation of 3D lattice designs to create an ultra-lightweight transmitarray comprised of multi-layer sub-wavelength conductor elements. We then demonstrate a scalable tiling method that allows modularized antenna fabrication beyond the build area, to achieve industrially competitive antenna sizes with minimal loss in performance. Additionally, we demonstrate a lightweight septum horn antenna which can be integrated with the transmitarray to form an all 3D-printed antenna system. The fabricated transmitarray and horn achieve competitive performance with an order-of-magnitude less weight. These results indicate the wide applicability of charge-programmed 3D printing in the fabrication of advanced antennas that can potentially meet the needs of next-generation communications and allow ultra-lightweight antenna designs not previously possible.

Presenting Author: Zhenpeng Xu UCLA-CEE

Presenting Author Biography: I am currently a Ph.D. student at the Advanced Manufacturing and Metamaterials Laboratory (AMML), University of California, Los Angeles, under the supervision of Prof. Xiaoyu Zheng. My projected graduation date is by summer 2023. I am specialized in mechanical design, projection stereolithography, structural and hybrid materials, mechanical mechanisms, composites, and mechanical property characterization. I am highly skilled in 3D printing technologies with 7+ years of experience. In addition, I have extensive experience in product design, development, and prototyping through my involvement in entrepreneurship during my master's period.

Authors:

Zhenpeng Xu UCLA-CEE
Ryan Hensleigh University of California, Los Angeles
Junbo Wang University of California, Los Angeles
Anastasios Papathanasopoulos University of California, Los Angeles
Zhen Wang University of California, Los Angeles
Xiaoyu Zheng University of California, Los Angeles
Yahya Rahmat-Samii University of California, Los Angeles