Hybrid Additive Manufacturing of a Dielectric Resonator Phased Array Antenna at K Band

This study explores the feasibility of using a hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) to design and produce low-cost, wideband phased array antennas for SatCom applications. We demonstrate the design, fabrication and experimental verificatino of an eight-element linear array comprised of multi-mode dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) providing full coverage of the K-band SatCom downlink bandwidth (17.7−21.2 GHz). The impact of print settings on material properties is assessed and incorporated into the antenna design process. The manufactured prototype is experimentally verified via impedance and far-field measurements. Furthermore, beam steering capabilities are demonstrated using a commercially available integrated circuit and a simple calibration procedure. The phased array antenna achieves full coverage of the intended band with an input reflectino coefficient below −10 dB. The averaged embedded element pattern demonstrates a realized gain of approximately 3 dB and a half-power beamwidth of 81 degrees. These results highlight the potential of combining hybrid AM and DRA technologies for future mmWave phased array development.