Novel K/Ka Radiating Chain Using Additive Manufacturing for Satellite Applications

In this work, a dual circular polarization feed chain using additive manufacturing for satellite application purposes has been developed. The feed chain has been manufactured using Selective Laser Melting (SLM) techniques and the performance has been compared with a traditional Computer Numerical Control (CNC) version. The measured results carried out an excellent agreement with the simulation ones, showing measured return loss above 18 dB and 1 dB of axial ratio over the whole K/Ka satellite band Measurements also show that SLM technology introduces only 0.25-0.3 dB of additional losses within this operating frequency band.