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Polymer-based 3D Printed Millimeter-wave Components for Spacecraft

Payloads

Conference Paper · July 2018

DOI: 10.1109/IMWS-AMP.2018.8457142

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 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on Advanced Materials and Processes for RF and THz Applications
(IMWS-AMP 2018), July 16-18, 2018, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Polymer-based 3D Printed Millimeter-wave

Components for Spacecraft Payloads
Stepan Lucyszyn Xiaobang Shang William J. Otter Connor W. Myant
Department of Electrical and Engineering, Materials and Department of Electrical and Dyson School of Design
Electronic Engineering Electrical Science Department Electronic Engineering Engineering
Imperial College London National Physical Laboratory Imperial College London Imperial College London
London, United Kingdom Teddington, United Kingdom London, United Kingdom London, United Kingdom
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Ran Cheng Nick M. Ridler

Department of Electrical and Engineering, Materials and
Electronic Engineering Electrical Science Department
Imperial College London National Physical Laboratory
London, United Kingdom Teddington, United Kingdom
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—This paper summarizes the current state of satellites have numerous payloads operating across the
research & development within the U.K. for polymer-based 3D frequency spectrum; a G-band example being the microwave
printed guided-wave and quasi-optical components for spacecraft sounder having channels at 150.0, 183.311 and 190.311 GHz.
payloads. Preliminary measured results look promising and show
that this emerging technology may well overtake existing
machined technologies in the not too distant future for general II. TARGET APPLICATIONS
aerospace applications. Communications payloads usually operate in the Ku-band
(12 to 18 GHz) and Ka-band (26.5 to 40 GHz). Previously, the
Keywords—Additive manufacturing, 3D printing, millimeter- National Physical Laboratory – Imperial College London team
wave, waveguide, horn antenna, mirror, spacecraft payload. have demonstrated that the electromagnetic performance of
polymer-based 3D printed waveguides at X-band (8.2 to 12.4
I. INTRODUCTION GHz) and W-band (75 to 110 GHz) are commensurate with
In only the past three years, the U.K. has played a leading commercial waveguides [2] [3]; while also demonstrating a
role in additive manufacturing using 3D printing for radio hybrid technology (low-cost passive components with high
frequency application from microwave to terahertz frequencies performance plug-in active devices) up to 500 GHz [9] and
[1]-[9]. With many proof-of-principles having already been even metal-pipe rectangular waveguides operating up to 1.1
demonstrated at component and subsystems levels within THz [7] [8].
academia, there is now growing commercial interest in From a brief review of spacecraft payloads, it is clear that
applying this technology to solve real engineering problems. the main application for G-band is meteorological satellites
One example is within the aerospace industry, where size, having millimeter-wave multichannel sounder payloads; where
mass, development time and ultimately cost are key drivers. guided-wave and quasi-optical components (horn antenna and
This paper summarizes some of our recent results from a mirror) are of interest. To further prove the technology,
one-year pilot project (funded by the UK Space Agency) to benchmarking against commercially available waveguide
apply 3D printing to spacecraft payloads within G-band (140 to through lines is required to demonstrate their suitability at
220 GHz). Spacecraft payload applications can be categorised G-band. Furthermore, commercially available rectangular horn
into three main areas, communications, military and scientific. antennas and mirrors have been ‘replicated’, using CAD files
A scientific payload example is the high frequency instrument that are openly available on the internet; such that their
on board the Planck spacecraft, performing background commercial counterpart can be used as benchmarks against
radiation measurements at 143 and 217 GHz. By far, the most which the measured performance of our 3D printed replicas
common example of G-band payloads is found on-board can be compared.
weather satellites. The main examples are operated by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) A. Metal-pipe Rectangular Waveguides (MPRWGs)
and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Two different lengths (25.4 and 50.8 mm) of straight
Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), with satellites section waveguide have been designed to allow them to be
provided by NASA and ESA. The various generations of these directly compared and contrasted with commercially-available
This work was funded by the UK Space Agency under grant NSTP3-FT-
G-band waveguides; the flanges adopt the new IEEE
046. This work was also supported by the U.K. Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council, under Grant EP/M001121/1 "TERACELL."
XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©2018 IEEE

978-1-5386-5569-6/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on Advanced Materials and Processes for RF and THz Applications
(IMWS-AMP 2018), July 16-18, 2018, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

specification [10]. An E-plane split-block design, shown in Fig. III. FABRICATION

1, was developed because of the small waveguide aperture
The Objet Connex series of polymer jetting (Polyjet) 3D
(having internal dimensions of only 1.2950 x 0.6475 mm2
printers provide state of the art in terms of feature size
[11]), when compared to its length, which would normally
create problems with conventional electroplating. Specifically, (minimum resolution of 20 x 20 x 16 µm3 across a maximum
there will be a depletion of the electro(less) plating solution build area of 340 x 340 x 200 mm3) for a commercially-
inside the waveguide, which may not necessarily be refreshed, available printer, while also being dimensionally stable (i.e.,
causing insufficient metal coating inside the waveguide. not exhibiting shrinkage). To achieve the necessary resolution,
it uses a wax-like support material that has to be completely
removed using a water jet wash, chemical treatment and/or
mechanical cleaning. As a result, the minimum feature size is
much larger than the resolution quoted. For this work, the
Objet 30Pro was chosen (minimum resolution of 100 x 100 x
16 µm3 across a maximum build area of 300 x 300 x 150 mm3),
as the worst-case surface roughness of 100 µm is sufficient for
G-band (having an upper-band-edge free space wavelength of
Fig. 1. CAD drawings of E-plane split-block 25.4 mm (left) and 50.8 mm 1.364 mm) and uses a support material that should melt away
(right) long MPRWGs. from the structure when heated; there is no requirement for
mechanical cleaning, as with the Connex printers.
B. 20 dBi Standard Gain Rectangular Horn Antenna The bulk of the support material melted away in an oven,
A commercial Flann Microwave Ltd. 20 dBi Standard Gain when baked at 60°C (recommended by the manufacturer).
Rectangular Horn Antenna (model 30240-20) was chosen, However, this does not fully remove all the support material,
because standard gain antennas are very well understood and which will limit the adhesion of the metal coating (consisting
there is a comprehensive datasheet available enabling replica of a flash coating of electroless nickel, followed by a 20 µm
3D printed versions to be made. A shell of 2 mm had been used thick layer of copper). To achieve complete removal, without
in the initial design, as shown in Fig. 2, while flanges were the use of mechanical polishing, an additional chemical method
chosen that adopt the new IEEE specification [10]. for clean was adopted, with the results shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 2. CAD drawings of the replica 20 dBi gain rectangular horn antenna.

C. Off-axis Parabolic Mirror

An Edmund Optics 63188 off-axis parabolic mirror was
chosen for the mirror to benchmark against. This parabolic
shaped surface represents a complex curved structure to test the
limits of the surface roughness achievable with the chosen 3D Fig. 4. Polyjet 3D printed rectangular horn antenna and parabolic mirror
printing process. Unlike the rectangular waveguide structures, (prior to metal plating).
which will start to multimode at frequencies above the
operating band, the mirror can operate throughout the THz
frequency band and beyond; limited by the metal coating and IV. PRELIMINARY MEASUREMENTS
surface roughness. The design is shown in Fig. 3. Measurements were undertaken at the U.K.’s National Physical
Laboratory using their vector network analyser (VNA) with
G-band extension heads and Imperial College’s imaging setup
(employing their new 1024 pixel Terasense TERA-1024
sub-THz imaging camera, which can operate between 70 and
390 GHz).
The two-inch (50.8 mm) long waveguide is shown in Fig.
5, along with its preliminary measurements. It can be seen that
insertion loss is less than 5 dB across G-band; at the near-mid-
band frequency of 172 GHz, insertion loss is approximately
Fig. 3. CAD drawings of the replica off-axis parabolic mirror.
3 dB, corresponding to 0.059 dB/mm or 0.139 dB/g.
 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on Advanced Materials and Processes for RF and THz Applications
(IMWS-AMP 2018), July 16-18, 2018, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

V. CONCLUSION
This paper has summarized the current state of research &
development within the U.K. for polymer-based 3D printed
guided-wave and quasi-optical components for millimeter-
wave spacecraft payloads. While the preliminary measured
results look promising, there are a number of improvements
that are currently being investigated across the technology
(from design to manufacture and even with metrology); since
the turn-around time for development is inherently short with
3D printing technology more and better results will be
reported. Regardless, it is believed that this emerging
technology may well overtake existing machined technologies
(a) (b) in the not too distant future for general aerospace applications.

Fig. 5. (a) Assembled two-inch G-band E-plane split-block MPRWG; and

(b) preliminary measured performance. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Flann Microwave Ltd., as
The quasi-optical measurement setup for testing the horn an industrial partner for our project. In addition, the technical
antenna and mirror is shown in Fig. 6. Preliminary measured support from Dr. M. M. Ahmad., Hang Ren and Usman
results show almost no difference in performance when the Waheed is appreciated.
commercial components are replaced by their 3D printed
replica counterparts. REFERENCES
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