3-D metal-direct-printed wideband and high-efficiency waveguide-fed antenna array

The Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) 3-D printing technique is used to fabricate a relatively large 8×8 wideband waveguide array with an integrated corporate-fed network. This DMLS rapid prototyping technique offers the flexibility to fabricate complicated waveguide-based structures with good reliability and high-precision. Experimental results show antenna efficiency is higher than 80% over a wide operation bandwidth and even exceeding 90% at most frequencies. This work demonstrates the 3-D DMLS technique is a promising manufacturing method for the fabrication of complex waveguide antenna arrays.