Copper Mesh Ground Planes for 3D-Printed Substrates

A common problem experienced when producing microwave components through additive manufacturing is the adhesion of printed dielectric substrates to a ground plane. This paper proposes a solution for fabrication involving the Filament Deposition Method (FDM) approach to 3D-printing. Directly 3D-printing onto a fine copper mesh sheet simplifies the fabrication process and maintains acceptable propagation characteristics for the resulting grounded slab. For further demonstration, a frequency-scanning periodic leaky-wave antenna has also been produced and tested.