Composite materials for microwave devices using additive manufacturing

• Published in: Electronics letters Vol. 52; no. 10; pp. 832 - 833
• Main Authors: Bukhari, S.S, Whittow, W.G, Zhang, S, Vardaxoglou, J.C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 12.05.2016
• Subjects: additive manufacturing; Additives; Composite materials; Dielectric constant; dielectric constants; Electronics; Mathematical analysis; microstrip antennas; microwave devices; Microwave technology; Microwaves; Patch antennas; Permittivity; rapid prototyping (industrial); relative permittivity; three‐dimensional printing; dielectric constants; permittivity; additive manufacturing; microwave devices; relative permittivity; three-dimensional printing; microstrip antennas; patch antennas; composite materials; rapid prototyping (industrial)
• ISSN: 0013-5194; 1350-911X; 1350-911X
• DOI: 10.1049/el.2016.0078

Additive manufacturing has been combined with commercially available RF materials to synthesise composite materials whose relative permittivity can be controlled. A design equation for predicting the effective permittivity of these composite materials has also been presented. The relative permittivity of the composite materials was measured by fabricating patch antennas using these materials as the substrate. It has been demonstrated that by using Taconic, polyactic acid (PLA) and air, three materials with different dielectric constants, a large and nearly continuous range of relative permittivity values, from 1.47 to 6.00, can be realised.