A Numerical Study on 3D Printed Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces Lattices for Microwaves Shielding

3D printing has already changed the antennas and microwave (MW) devices paradigms. Being enabled to prototype innovative geometries the designers are looking for identifying new topologies useful for several MW applications. Among the underestimated topologies that can hold a great potential for MW devices, implicit surfaces such as triply periodic minimal surfaces were recently proposed. In this work we will numerically investigate 3D printed TPMS in the MW range, focusing on the Primitive surface to investigate the role of cell-porosity, assumed to vary between 20% and 80%, and studying bare PLA and on a copper-loaded PLA, analyzed in a frequency range from 1–20 GHz. 3D printed TPMS lattices with 20% and 40% porosities could be useful for shielding in the x-and K-bands for both PLA and copper-loaded PLA. The PLA maximum shielding effectiveness is 15 dB, whilst the metal-filled TPMS structure can reaches shielding effectiveness of maximum 60 dB.