Impact of PBF-LB/M process parameters on the effective electrical conductivity of AlSi10Mg specimens

Abstract Additive manufacturing via laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) enables the fabrication of complex radio frequency components but leads to increased surface roughness, which reduces the effective electrical conductivity. This study investigates the potential of optimizing surface roughness and, therefore, the effective electrical conductivity by using different PBF-LB/M parameter sets. A total of 12 cylindrical AlSi10Mg specimens were fabricated with four different process parameter sets. The specimen’s surface roughness was measured using laser scanning microscopy. The effective electrical conductivity was determined by measuring the unloaded quality factor of a radio frequency cavity with the specimens mounted inside. The specimens with the lowest surface roughness of approximately 0.11 μm (Rq) exhibit the highest effective conductivity of about 17.4 MS/m. This corresponds to an improvement of up to 16.5% compared to the other process parameter sets. Therefore, optimizing additive manufacturing process parameters has the potential to improve radio frequency performance and reduce the need for post-processing. These findings support the development of additively manufactured radio frequency components with improved electrical efficiency.