Investigation of 3D Printed Electrically Small Folded Spherical Meander Wire Antenna

The radiation properties and fabrication precautions of a 3D printed, electrically small folded spherical meander wire monopole antenna are investigated. The antenna is self-resonant and shows sufficiently high radiation efficiency at an electrical size ka of 0.4, with the radiation quality factor Q approaching the lower physical bound. In antenna fabrication, the possible structural deformation due to gravity is examined before the antenna frame is 3D-printed. The required conductivity is achieved by multiple manual paintings of a silver paste. The radiation efficiency and pattern show very good agreement with the computed expectations, whereas the resonant frequency deviates by 11.8%. The method to minimize such a fabrication error when using 3D printing technology for wire antennas is discussed.

[1]  J. Lewis,et al.  Conformal Printing of Electrically Small Antennas on Three‐Dimensional Surfaces , 2011, Advanced materials.

[2]  Pai-Yen Chen,et al.  Properties and Applications of Electrically Small Folded Ellipsoidal Helix Antenna , 2012, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[3]  Guan-Long Huang,et al.  Application of 3-D metal-direct-printing technique for waveguide antenna fabrication , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation & USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting.

[4]  Min Liang,et al.  A 3-D Luneburg Lens Antenna Fabricated by Polymer Jetting Rapid Prototyping , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[5]  Geonyeong Shin,et al.  Electrically small folded spherical helix antennas using copper strips and 3D printing technology , 2016 .

[6]  H. Thal.  New Radiation$Q$Limits for Spherical Wire Antennas , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[7]  Bethany C Gross,et al.  Evaluation of 3D printing and its potential impact on biotechnology and the chemical sciences. , 2014, Analytical chemistry.

[8]  Ryan Bahr,et al.  Infill-Dependent 3-D-Printed Material Based on NinjaFlex Filament for Antenna Applications , 2016, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[9]  Oleksiy S. Kim,et al.  Rapid Prototyping of Electrically Small Spherical Wire Antennas , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[10]  Jaehoon Choi,et al.  Realistic Head Phantom for Evaluation of Brain Stroke Localization Methods Using 3D Printer , 2016 .

[11]  Atef Z. Elsherbeni,et al.  3D Printed Dielectric Reflectarrays: Low-Cost High-Gain Antennas at Sub-Millimeter Waves , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[12]  J. Chieh,et al.  Development of a Ku-Band Corrugated Conical Horn Using 3-D Print Technology , 2014, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[13]  Suhyeon Lee,et al.  An electrically small, 3D printed folded spherical meander antenna , 2017, 2017 Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility (APEMC).