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

The feasibility of using hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) to produce low-cost, phased array antennas for SatCom applications is investigated in this work. A 4x2 planar array comprised of dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) operating in the fundamental mode within the K-band SatCom downlink band (17.7-21.2 GHz) has been designed, fabricated and measured. The impact of print settings on the material properties is assessed and incorporated into the antenna design process. Manufactured prototypes of the single element and the planar array geometry are experimentally verified in terms of their scattering parame-ters and far-field radiation patterns. The potential of combining hybrid AM and DRA technologies for future mmWave phased array developments is highlighted by the presented results.