Multi-axis Manufacture of Conformal Metasurface Antennas
Date
2023-06-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
Abstract
A conformal metasurface antenna exhibiting a pencil beam radiation pattern at 10.0 GHz has been designed using the Voronoi partition approach, and fabricated on the Kahu Uninhabited Aerial System (UAS) fuselage. Two manufacturing methods are presented and compared. The first approach utilized a 3-axis Trotec fiber laser to etch the flattened metasurface geometry in copper foil. The etched pattern was then ‘stretched’ over the UAS geometry. The second approach utilized a 6-axis nScrypt (retrofitted with an IDS aerosol jetting tool) to conformally print the metasurface pattern directly on the UAS fuselage. An electroless copper plating step was then utilized to improve the radiofrequency (RF) conductivity of the printed silver. Both manufacturing methods yielded functional metasurface antennas with equivalent performance at the operating frequency. However, the first method is limited to geometries that can be ‘flattened’ with acceptable tolerances, whereas the second approach is amenable to all practical geometries. This demonstration of two manufacturing techniques is a critical step forward in the cost-effective deployment of truly conformal metasurface antennas on realistic geometries.
Description
This article was originally published in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/LAWP.2023.3282556. © 2023 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. This article will be embargoed until 6/9/2025.
Keywords
antenna, metasurface, Voronoi, additive manufacturing, aerosol
Citation
E. Gupta, C. Bonner, N. Lazarus, M. S. Mirotznik and K. J. Nicholson, "Multi-axis Manufacture of Conformal Metasurface Antennas," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, doi: 10.1109/LAWP.2023.3282556.