In the last decade, we have witnessed a tremendous development of 3D printing technology, which evolved from a fancy device on a lab table to a sophisticated tool able to physically reproduce virtually any shape in material – plastic, metal, resin, and even chocolate. The technology is intensively used for rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing in small to medium volumes of parts for motor vehicle, aerospace, and medical industry. It has been commercialized to the level, where a design to print can be up-loaded on-line and the printed model delivered to a customer next day.
Researchers and engineers from Electromagnetic System Group successfully used 3D printing to make a prototype of an antenna that would be difficult and very expensive to fabricate any other way. It is electrically small spherical wire antenna known to exhibit the radiation quality factor Q very close to a physically fundamental lower bound. The antenna was printed in plastic and subsequently covered with conductive paint. The result is shown on the photo.
The performance of this and other 3D printed antennas measured at the DTU-ESA Facility will soon be published. For more information, please contact Associate Professor Oleksiy S. Kim