3D Printed X-Band Orthomode Transducer and Conical Waveguide Horn Antenna

3-D Printed Dually Symmetric Orthomode Transducer and Horn Antenna at X-Band

“…These types of structures have been made in both traditional waveguide and substrate integrated waveguide topologies [1]- [13]. These OMTs combine two or more waveguide paths into a common waveguide by bending orthogonal guides together [9], using a series of matching structures [4], [7], [8], probe feeding a horn from multiple points [12], through waveguide turnstiles [1]- [3], [6], [10], or other balanced structures [5], [13] where the common waveguide is fed symmetrically with pairs of single polarization waveguides.…”

“…Most OMT structures rely on an asymmetric feed to combine two orthogonally polarized paths into a common waveguide. However, this asymmetric feed can result in an asymmetric ration pattern this was observed in [8] where two rectangular waveguides were brought into the corner of a horn antenna, or in [9] where two orthogonal paths were bent together, both producing asymmetric far-field patterns. Waveguide turnstiles, among other applications like circulators, can be used to combine two orthogonally polarized paths into a common guide in a balanced fashion [1], [2], [6], [10], [11], [14]- [17].…”

“…Multiple types of additive manu-facturing with different materials can be used. Recently, waveguide components have been printed using metal processes such as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) where a metal allow powder is sintered into the shape of a desired structure [10]- [13] or through fused deposition modeling (FDM) that forms the structure out of plastic and then the components are metallized using metal foil tapes or conductive paints [9], [18], [19]. The metal printing options allow for monolithic structures that are difficult machine through traditional operations or would require many different setups or be fabricated from multiple parts that do not require significant post processing.…”

3D printed variable aperture horn with modular ridges

“…Recently, multiple examples of inexpensive fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printed from plastic and metalized using metallic tapes [1,2], conductive paints [3,4], plastics with conductive additives [5], or by metallic printing [6] have been seen that drastically reduce the cost of the waveguide feed structures and antennas. However, these structures still require a waveguide launcher to be useable with the types of inexpensive vector network analyzers (VNAs) with coaxial connections.…”