Final Thesis ISO

Design, Fabrication and Measurement of Millimeter Fresnel Lens and Helical Antenna
using Additive Manufacturing
THESIS
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in
the Graduate School of The Ohio State University
By
Kyoung Ho Jeong
Graduate Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Ohio State University
2017
Master's Examination Committee:
Nima Ghalichechian, Advisor
Wladimiro Villarroel
Copyrighted by
Kyoung Ho Jeong
2017
Abstract
Design, simulation, fabrication and measurement results of 3D-printed Fresnel lens and
helical antenna are presented. Because the real and imaginary permittivity of the 3D-
printed material (Polylactic Acid) at the frequencies of interest were unknown, we have
measured these properties using time-domain spectroscopy as well as impedance/material
analyzer. Full-wave simulation was used to design and optimize the realized gain of the
lens and helical antenna. These devices were later on fabricated using fused deposition
modeling and stereolithography, respectively. The gain pattern measurements were then
performed in the anechoic chamber. Measurement results showed that the lens could
achieve a gain improvement of 8-9 dB at 30 GHz. Furthermore, a 3D-printed helical
antenna with suspended microstrip was shown to achieve a gain of 14 dB and half-power
beam width of 30°, which closely agreed with the simulated data. By designing,
fabricating and characterizing the two aforementioned examples, the limitation and
challenges associated with additive manufacturing for antenna applications were studied.
Moreover, our study will advance realization of antenna structures, specifically in the
millimeter wave band.
ii
Acknowledgments
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Nima Ghalichechian, my advisor for
providing me an opportunity to research with wonderful topics and advising the whole
steps of this Thesis.
I sincerely thank two students from my group, Behnam Ghassemiparvin and Spandan
Shah, for their guidance and help with fabricating, measuring and sorting the results of
the helical antenna.
I also thank Prof. Wladimiro Villarroel as my post advisor and a committee member of
the thesis examination.
iii
Vita
2014................................................................B.S. EEE, Chung-Ang University
2015 to present ..............................................Graduate Research Associate, College of
Engineering, Electro Science Lab in The
Ohio State University
Fields of Study
Major Field: Electrical and Computer Engineering
iv
Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iii
Vita..................................................................................................................................... iv
Fields of Study ................................................................................................................... iv
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v
List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii
List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix
Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Motivation ................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Antennas fabricated using 3D printing technology ................................................... 2
1.2.1 Stereolithography (SLA) .................................................................................... 2
1.2.2 Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM).............. 14
1.2.3 Jetting Technique.............................................................................................. 23
1.2.4 Electronic Beam Melting (EBM) ..................................................................... 29
1.2.5 Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) ................................................................. 32
v
1.3 Summary ................................................................................................................. 36
Chapter 2: Dielectric Characterization of Polylactic Acid (PLA) .................................... 38
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 38
2.2 Analytical Model ..................................................................................................... 39
2.3 Measurement setup.................................................................................................. 40
2.4 Experimental results ................................................................................................ 42
2.5 Summary ................................................................................................................. 48
Chapter 3: Design and analysis of Fresnel lens ................................................................ 49
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 49
3.2 Lens design.............................................................................................................. 50
3.3 Simulation ............................................................................................................... 51
3.4 Fabrication............................................................................................................... 58
3.5 Measurement and results ......................................................................................... 59
3.6 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 68
Chapter 4: Design and Analysis of Helical Antenna ........................................................ 70
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 70
4.2 Antenna design ........................................................................................................ 72
4.3 Simulation ............................................................................................................... 74
4.4 Fabrication............................................................................................................... 77
vi
4.5 Measurement and results ......................................................................................... 82
4.6 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 87
Chapter 5: Conclusion....................................................................................................... 89
5.1 Summary ................................................................................................................. 89
5.2 Discussion ............................................................................................................... 90
5.3 Future work ............................................................................................................. 92
References ......................................................................................................................... 94
vii
List of Tables
Table. 1. Measured results from THz-TDS system .......................................................... 45
Table. 2. Thickness, relaxation time, and loss tangent of PLA at 30 GHz ....................... 45
Table. 3. Change of the resistance during the change of coating number ........................ 82
viii
List of Figures
Fig. 1. Examples of cube antennas fabricated by PCB (left) and by stereolithography
(right) [3]. ............................................................................................................................ 3
Fig. 2. (a) Cross section view of the fabricated horn antenna, (b) the printed horn
metallized by silver ink (higher gain), (c) the printed horn antenna metallized by silver
ink and copper plating (lower gain) [4]. ............................................................................. 4
Fig. 3. The simulated and measured radiation patterns at E plane and H plane, (a) horn
antenna with higher gain in E plane, (b) in H plane, (c) horn antenna with lower gain in E
plane, (d) in H plane [4]. ..................................................................................................... 5
Fig. 4. The fabricated spline-profiled smooth horn antenna operating at Ku-band [5]. .... 7
Fig. 5. The fabricated ring-focus dual-reflector antenna operating at Ku-band [5]. .......... 7
Fig. 6. The radiation patterns of ring-focus dual-reflector antennas at 11.3 GHz in E-
plane [5] .............................................................................................................................. 8
Fig. 7. The radiation patterns of ring-focus dual-reflector antennas at 11.3 GHz in H-
plane [5]. ............................................................................................................................. 8
plane [5]. ............................................................................................................................. 9
plane [5]. ............................................................................................................................. 9

ix
Fig. 10. Boresight antenna gain of the ring-focus dual-reflector antenna [5]. ................... 9
Fig. 11. Full-wave simulated antenna gains of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) 3D
printed WR-90 array antenna and metal plated 3D printed plastic antenna at 10.7 GHz
[6]. ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Fig. 12. Simulated and measured gain of array at 12.5 GHz [6]. .................................... 11
Fig. 13. Simulated and measured gain of array at 21.7 GHz [6]. .................................... 12
Fig. 14. The printed single-waveguide array based on WR-90 at 10.7 GHz [6]. ............ 12
Fig. 15. The printed slot array with direct metal laser sintering method at 10.7 GHz [6].
........................................................................................................................................... 13
Fig. 16. 3D printed 6" by 6" slot array at 12.5 GHz with the gain of 24.6 dBi [6].......... 13
Fig. 17. DMLS 3D metal printed slot array at 12.7 GHz [6]. .......................................... 13
Fig. 18. 3D printed 6" by 6" slot array at 21.7 GHz with the gain of 29.5 dBi [6].......... 14
Fig. 19. The printed 20/30 GHz dual band offset stepped-reflector antennas [7]. .......... 16
Fig. 20. The simulated and measured directivity patterns in E-plane and H-plane at 20
GHz [7]. ............................................................................................................................ 17
GHz [7]. ............................................................................................................................ 17
Fig. 22. The 3D printed folded spherical helix antenna with supporting arcs which are
not coated with copper [8]. ............................................................................................... 18
Fig. 23. The 3D printed spherical zigzag antenna with supporting arcs which are not
coated with copper [8]. ..................................................................................................... 18
x
Fig. 24. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients and radiation efficiency of the
folded spherical helix antenna [8]. .................................................................................... 19
spherical zigzag antenna [8].............................................................................................. 20
Fig. 26. Measured cross-polarization pattern of the folded spherical helix antenna [8]. . 21
Fig. 27. Measured cross-polarization pattern of the spherical zigzag antenna [8]. ......... 21
Fig. 28. Wired metal antenna with 4 arms and 1.77 turns (left), its template printed with
selective laser sintering (right) [9]. ................................................................................... 22
Fig. 29. Simulated and measured reflective coefficients for (a) antenna with 4 arms, 1.77
turns, 5mm radius, (b) 4 arms, 0.747 turns, 10mm radius, (c) 2 arms, 1.65 turns, 17.5mm
radius [9]. .......................................................................................................................... 23
Fig. 30. The printed horn antenna with electromagnetic crystal (EMXT) structure [12]. 25
Fig. 31. Top views of the printed dielectric reflectarrays, Design 1(left), Design
2(middle), Design 3(right) [13]......................................................................................... 26
Fig. 32. 3D printed two-turn helix antenna and the integration of lens and antenna [14].
........................................................................................................................................... 27
Fig. 33. Simulated and measured LHCP gain patterns at 9 GHz with lens and without
lens [14]. ........................................................................................................................... 28
Fig. 34. . Simulated and measured RHCP gain patterns at 9 GHz with lens and without
lens [14]. ........................................................................................................................... 28
Fig. 35. Measured radiation patterns at 9 GHz, helical antenna (left), helical antenna
combined with Fresnel lens (right) [14]............................................................................ 29
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Fig. 36. The reference horn (left) and the 3D printed horns with 25.9 micrometer
roughness (middle) and with 39.7 micrometer roughness (right) with EBM method [15].
........................................................................................................................................... 31
Fig. 37. Measured transmissions of reference horn and the printed horns [15]............... 31
Fig. 38. The fabricated log-periodic dipole antenna and its proposed illustration [17]. .. 33
Fig. 39. 8-turn helix antenna with using FDM method [18]. ........................................... 34
Fig. 40. The fabricated microwave patch antenna [19]. .................................................. 35
Fig. 41. THz-TDS system TPS Spectra 3000 from TeraView, Ltd. ................................ 40
Fig. 42. Measurement of PLA sample with Impedance/Material analyzer (E4991A from
Agilent) ............................................................................................................................. 41
Fig. 43. Amplitude change of transmission coefficient (above) and phase change for 0.8
mm-thick PLA sample (bottom) ....................................................................................... 42
Fig. 44. Real and imaginary part of dielectric constant and loss tangent of PLA (0.6 mm)
........................................................................................................................................... 43
........................................................................................................................................... 44
........................................................................................................................................... 44
Fig. 47. Real dielectric constant vs. thickness of PLA samples ...................................... 46
Fig. 48. Loss tangent vs. thickness of PLA samples ........................................................ 47
Fig. 49. 3D schematic of the designed Fresnel lens ......................................................... 51
xii
Fig. 50. (a) E-field plot (magnitude) (left) and (b) E-field plot (magnitude with phase)
(right) ................................................................................................................................ 52
Fig. 51. Focusing gain vs. distance of 4-zone Fresnel lens.............................................. 53
Fig. 52. Simulation schematic before applying symmetric boundary condition ............. 54
Fig. 53. Simulation schematic after applying symmetric boundary condition ................ 55
Fig. 54. Phase angle variation vs. distance in the horn antenna....................................... 56
Fig. 55. Distance between the lens and horn antenna after phase center consideration .. 56
Fig. 56. Simulation results for the gain of horn antenna without and with lens .............. 57
Fig. 57. Lens fabricated with PLA ................................................................................... 59
Fig. 58. Measurement setup in the anechoic chamber (side view) .................................. 60
Fig. 59. Measurement setup without lens (close view) .................................................... 61
Fig. 60. Radiation pattern of the horn antenna (Narda V637) without lens..................... 62
Fig. 61. Measurement setup with lens (close view) ......................................................... 63
Fig. 62. Radiation pattern of the horn antenna with lens ................................................. 64
Fig. 63. Simulation of horn antenna with tilted position (10° in x-axis) ......................... 65
Fig. 64. Simulated radiation pattern of horn antenna in the tilted position ..................... 66
Fig. 65. Measured radiation pattern of cross-polarization (Only horn and horn with lens)
........................................................................................................................................... 67
Fig. 66. (a) Full structure of helix antenna, (b) Geometry of the quarter-wave microstrip
line..................................................................................................................................... 73
Fig. 67. Helical antenna model in HFSS with magnified impedance matching part ....... 74
Fig. 68. Smith chart of impedance matching from 4 GHz to 6 GHz. .............................. 75
xiii
Fig. 69. Return loss of the helical antenna ....................................................................... 76
Fig. 70. Simulated radiation pattern in right handed (RHCP) and left handed circular
polarization (LHCP).......................................................................................................... 77
Fig. 71. Fabricated helical body of antenna without coating with copper spray (Bare) .. 78
Fig. 72. Fabricated holder ................................................................................................ 78
Fig. 73. Fabricated ground plane without copper tape (Bare) ......................................... 78
Fig. 74. Fabricated 3D helix antenna (left), the model after metallization (right) ........... 79
Fig. 75. Brush painted model (Left), Spray painted model (Right) ................................. 80
Fig. 76. Progression of coatings, from bare (leftmost) to 4th coat (rightmost) ............... 81
Fig. 77. Resistance across helix after metallization ......................................................... 82
Fig. 78. Measurement of reflection coefficient by using Agilent N5230A network
analyzer ............................................................................................................................. 83
Fig. 79. Measured data of reflection coefficient .............................................................. 83
Fig. 80. Radiation pattern measurement in the anechoic chamber (Back side) ............... 84
Fig. 81. Radiation pattern measurement in the anechoic chamber (Front side) .............. 85
Fig. 82. Gain pattern of the helical antenna at the frequency of 4.87 GHz (Co-pol)....... 86
Fig. 83. Gain pattern of the helical antenna at the frequency of 4.87 GHz (Cross-pol) .. 86
xiv
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Motivation
3D printing, which is also called additive manufacturing (AM), is a fabrication method
that uses digital files to build 3D structures. Due to its infinite ability to build desired
structures, 3D printing is coming to the fore, and is now widely used in industry. This
technique can implement a variety of materials, such as dielectrics, metals, ceramics,
polymers and even bio-compatible materials. The 3D printing technique can be used to
manufacture electromagnetic or microwave structures such as antennas and lenses, more
effectively, compared with the conventional techniques such as the machining.
Because it is cost-effective, multifunctional, time-efficient, compact and waste-reductive,
AM has the potential to replace many traditional fabrication methods. Currently, most
electronic wireless devices are being miniaturized, and the main parts of these devices
and their antennas are also made to be compact size. However, antennas will suffer
limitations in gain, efficiency, system range and bandwidth when their size is reduced
less than quarter wavelength [1]. To overcome this problem, by adopting the 3D printing
methods, antennas can be made to be lighter in weight, smaller and with freedom of
design without limitations on miniaturization. The movement toward using AM methods
is now being expanded to the whole field of microwave and radio frequency (RF).
Various kinds of antennas have been made in the past using the additive technique; their
geometries, the steps in their fabrication and the materials that were used have been
reported, along with their results.
1
1.2 Antennas fabricated using 3D printing technology
To take a deep look into the previous research on the 3D printed antennas, it is important
to understand what kinds of AM methods exist and analyze the reported antennas that
were printed by each additive method. Based on this analysis, 3D printing technologies
are discussed below.
1.2.1 Stereolithography (SLA)
Stereolithography(SLA) is one of the oldest and the most accurate printing methods of all
AM fabrication. This process consists of layer-by-layer printing steps. Every layer has its
own information in a Standard Tessellation Language (STL) file format, which is used
for many AM process. First, this method requires the creation of a 3D model from the
CAD program, and this CAD model is transferred to STL format. The layer-by-layer
printing then is processed, with the laser forming the liquid plastic that is exposed by the
SLA printer.
Previous research on manufacturing antennas based on the SLA method was reported by
Liu et al. [2]. The authors reported that the SLA method could allow for the vertical
integration of filters and realize the implementation of a compact High-Q filter in a small
cross-sectional area, which could make this method suitable for packaging the High-Q
and high-frequency structures together at once. A 3D cube antenna fabricated with SLA
has also been reported in [3]. SLA was used for fabricating this antenna due to its
reduction in material used. Reducing the material used led to a decrease in antenna size
2
by a factor of ~1.2 compared to the first SLA design, which comprised of more material.
Fig. 1 shows the fabricated sample
Fig. 1. Examples of cube antennas fabricated by PCB (left) and by stereolithography

(right) [3].
As seen in the figure, a printed circuit board (PCB) design, which is routinely used in
antenna structures, was compared with the stereolithographic model. Even though the
3D-printed antenna had a lower gain, decreased by 2.5 dB relative to the PCB version,
the prototype antenna printed by the SLA method had a lighter weight than the traditional
PCB antenna; this characteristic is suitable for embedded wireless sensor node
applications.
3D printed horn antennas have been reported in [4]. The authors used the AutoCAD
program to divide the structures of horn antennas into many layers. The curing process
then was done by an ultraviolet (UV) laser beam in layer-by-layer sequence in the SLA
process. Finally, partially cured parts of structures were dipped in tripropylene glycol
monomethyl ether (TPM) to remove the uncured excessive resin, and the last step of
3
curing was done in a UV light chamber. The structures were metallized and coated with a
conductive silver nanoparticle ink. The ink was applied on the surface of the structure
and could be electropolated to improve conductivity. Following these steps, two horns
were fabricated. Type one was covered by the conductive silver ink only, and the other
one was coated with copper plated on the silver ink. Fig.2 shows the printed horns and
their geometries.
Fig. 2. (a) Cross section view of the fabricated horn antenna, (b) the printed horn
metallized by silver ink (higher gain), (c) the printed horn antenna metallized by silver
ink and copper plating (lower gain) [4].
Type I has a measured gain of 14.58 dB and a return loss of below -20 dB. Type II has a
measured gain of 10.15 dB and a return loss of below -17.5 dB. The difference in the
measured gain might be due to different reasons. First, there is a size difference between
the two types of horn antenna. Type I has 20 mm longer width of front aperture than
Type II. Second, although the authors indicated that the conductivity might barely affect
4
the performance of the horn because the current density on the horn surfaces is low due to
its large surface area and non-resonant behavior, the metal coating in Type II is thicker
than that in Type I. Third, the return loss of Type II is about 2.5 dB larger than that of
Type I. Therefore, the latter has better impedance matching. As a result, due to the
difference in size, thickness, material on the surface of horn and impedance matching,
Type I and II have different gains of 14.58 dB and 10.15 dB, respectively. Furthermore,
the graphs of simulated and measured radiation patterns suggest a good agreement
between the two.
Fig. 3. The simulated and measured radiation patterns at E plane and H plane, (a) horn
antenna with higher gain in E plane, (b) in H plane, (c) horn antenna with lower gain in E
plane, (d) in H plane [4].
5
In this paper, the authors show how SLA technology can be implemented to fabricate RF
components and give almost same results as the simulation results. Moreover, they expect
that complicated 3D structures such as double-ridged horn, could also be realized with
using SLA and it helps with integrating antennas with other microwave and RF
components.
More antennas that were fabricated using SLA have been reported in the literature. In the
paper by Van Der Vorst et al. [5], two different types of compact Ku-band medium- to
high-gain antennas, a horn antenna and a dual reflector antenna, were built to prove the
capabilities of 3D printing technology for constructing the RF structures within the Ku-
band. Both models were fabricated using SLA due to its high-resolution advantage and
smooth surface finishing. Furthermore, the advanced plastic material that this process
used could achieve weight reduction and thermal insulation. After the printing process,
there was an additional coating process with copper to electropolate the antennas. Fig.4
and 5 show a printed spline-profiled smooth horn antenna and a ring-focus dual-reflector
antenna.
6
Fig. 4. The fabricated spline-profiled smooth horn antenna operating at Ku-band [5].
Fig. 5. The fabricated ring-focus dual-reflector antenna operating at Ku-band [5].
The authors established center frequencies of 11.3 GHz and 14.5 GHz because the
models were down-scaled of the 400 mm to reduce the cost of manufacturing. Therefore,
the target bandwidth, 18-26 GHz, was changed into 11-14 GHz. The measurements were
progressed in the Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR). Radiation patterns and gain of
the ring-focus dual-reflector antenna are given in Fig.6-10.
7
plane [5]

plane [5].
8
plane [5].

plane [5].
Fig. 10. Boresight antenna gain of the ring-focus dual-reflector antenna [5].
9
As shown in Fig 6-10, there are relatively good agreements between the simulated and
measured results. However, the exact value of the return loss of this antenna could not be
calculated in the paper because of the transition from circular waveguide to rectangular
waveguide. This transition needed a developed mechanical interface, but the authors
could not implement an improved interface, and the transition was not included in the
simulation program. Aside from this limitation, the authors concluded that the 3D
printing process is a proper method to realize the medium- and high-gain antennas
operating in the Ku-band.
A waveguide slot array antenna with high gain and a wide range of a few GHz up to 100
GHz was also fabricated with the SLA method [6]. The author mentioned the difference
between this antenna and other groups’ antennas: Most of the antennas were made from
an originally dissembled structure painted with conductive material. However, Le Sage’s
antenna was fabricated as an assembled geometry, including whole internal and external
parts of slots and waveguide feed, without disassembly. The antenna was externally
coated with copper with a thickness of 2 mils (50.8 microns), and the inside of the
antenna was plated with a reduced thickness of 5.08 microns. After printing, the antenna
was cleaned and cured with fresh alcohol and UV light. Using simulation, the printed
antenna was compared to a conventional antenna which fabricated using copper and
brazed with aluminum. In this case, the WR-90 waveguide antenna was constructed by
using direct metal laser sintering and performed at a frequency of 10.7 GHz. The 3D-
10
printed antennas that performed at frequencies of 10.7 GHz, 12.5 GHz, and 21.7 GHz are
plotted from Fig. 11 to Fig. 13, respectively.
Fig. 11. Full-wave simulated antenna gains of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) 3D
printed WR-90 array antenna and metal plated 3D printed plastic antenna at 10.7 GHz
[6].
Fig. 12. Simulated and measured gain of array at 12.5 GHz [6].
11
Fig. 13. Simulated and measured gain of array at 21.7 GHz [6].
Along with introducing the antennas made by using the SLA method, the author also
used another way, direct metal laser sintering, to fabricate arrays that could perform at
10.7 GHz and 12.7 GHz to compare with the SLA-printed antennas.
Fig. 14. The printed single-waveguide array based on WR-90 at 10.7 GHz [6].
12
Fig. 15. The printed slot array with direct metal laser sintering method at 10.7 GHz [6].
Fig. 16. 3D printed 6" by 6" slot array at 12.5 GHz with the gain of 24.6 dBi [6].
Fig. 17. DMLS 3D metal printed slot array at 12.7 GHz [6].
13
Fig. 18. 3D printed 6" by 6" slot array at 21.7 GHz with the gain of 29.5 dBi [6].
Reasonable performance was achieved through the results compared to the results of
simulation. Also, in this paper, authors tried to use two different types of 3D printing
technologies, SLA and DMLS, and show that the antennas were inexpensively fabricated
by computer and the whole process was finished within few weeks instead of many
months. Moreover, not only realizing the same size of commercial waveguide, but also
achieving the acceptable performances with two kinds of additive manufacturing in one
research can show that new technologies are really competitive compared to conventional
fabrication methods.
1.2.2 Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM)
Selective laser sintering (SLS) uses a laser as a power source; the laser melts powdered
material instead of liquid plastic resin used in the SLA method. This is the main
difference between the selective laser method and SLA method. Specifically, based on
the 3D structure file that is formed by the CAD program, the laser moves across the bed
14
of powdered material in the X-Y axes. The laser then melts and blends the particles of the
powdered material to build a solid. While the layer-by-layer process is running, the bed
of powdered material drops and a roller makes the surface of the bed smoothly connected
to each layer that is newly made.
Selective laser melting (SLM) also uses a laser as a power source, and it fuses and melts
metallic powders. Thus, some people classify the SLM method as a subcategory of the
SLS technique. However, SLM fuses the metal material totally into the 3D structure.
More specifically, the SLM method uses stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, and cobalt
chrome in the form of a fine powder in the printer. In the first step of printing, this
powder is applied to the surface of the plate, and the laser is directed to the powdered
plate to form a solid structure. The printer repeats this step with each layer. This method
has several advantages when a user wants to make complex structures and geometries
with thin walls and hidden channels. This technique is widely used in the field of
aerospace and medical orthopedics. However, it takes long time to qualify and certify the
parts from this method for aforementioned fields.
The antennas fabricated by SLS printer have been reported in a few papers. For example,
a stepped reflector antenna was built with an EOSINT P 385 machine for SLS of the
nylon-polyamide PA2200 [7]. It took 36 hours because the vertical step size that the
authors chose was 0.12mm, and the machine needed to build 3300 layers. After the layer-
by-layer process, a cooling process was applied during the 36 hours to confirm uniform
temperature decay over the reflector volume to avoid material stress. Then manual post
processing was applied to sintered reflector: It was sprayed with a primer, and the surface
15
was sanded to make it smooth. Next, Applicoat ES210, a silver-based paint, was sprayed
on the surface to make it reflective. This coated antenna and the feed horn were
integrated into one structure to be set with correct positioning of the feed and reflector.
The final picture of the assembled 20/30 GHz dual-band offset stepped-reflector antenna
is given in Fig. 19.
Fig. 19. The printed 20/30 GHz dual band offset stepped-reflector antennas [7].
With this setup, the spherical near-field radiation patterns of the antenna were measured.
Fig. 20 and Fig. 21 are the co- and cross-polar directivity pattern in the offset plane at 20
GHz and 30 GHz.
16
GHz [7].
GHz [7].
From the results, the measured peak directivity was 36.7 dB at 20 GHz and 40.4 dB at 30
GHz. Aperture efficiency was calculated with the values of 61% at 20 GHz and 64% at
30 GHz, respectively. Comparatively, simulated and measured patterns achieved a good
agreement. From the result, the researchers showed a possibility of realizing the medium
17
sized high-frequency antennas by using SLS technology. Kim presented an electrically
small spherical antenna with a zigzag structure and a folded spherical helix antenna [8].
These two types of antennas were made with the SLS method and reproduced fine wire
structures with high accuracy. The figures below are antennas printed using SLS
technology.
Fig. 22. The 3D printed folded spherical helix antenna with supporting arcs which are
not coated with copper [8].
Fig. 23. The 3D printed spherical zigzag antenna with supporting arcs which are not
coated with copper [8].
18
Antennas needed to be coated with conductive material, such as copper. However, Kim et
al. [8] did not adopt the widely used coating process, copper paint coating, due to
unsatisfying radiation efficiency of 80%. Another coating technique, polycrystalline
copper coating, was used on the surfaces of these antennas. From the results, the
conductivity of the antennas was about two orders of conductivity better than that of the
copper-paint-coated antennas. The plots of reflection coefficients and radiation efficiency
of the folded spherical helix antenna and the spherical zigzag antenna are shown in Fig.
24 and 25.
folded spherical helix antenna [8].
19
spherical zigzag antenna [8].
As can be seen from the graphs, a good agreement between the simulated and measured
reflection coefficients in both antennas at the frequency of 750 MHz is achieved.
However, the radiation efficiency of the printed antenna could not reach the maximum
predicted values. This part was left as future work, and the author suggested that
increasing the thickness of the conductive material should improve efficiency of the
antenna. The cross-polarization radiation patterns in Fig. 26 and 27 were also measured at
the near field antenna test facility to check if the expected cross-polarization radiation
patterns were shown.
20
Fig. 26. Measured cross-polarization pattern of the folded spherical helix antenna [8].
Fig. 27. Measured cross-polarization pattern of the spherical zigzag antenna [8].
From the results of radiation patterns, the folded spherical helix antenna had an
omnidirectional pattern of cross-polarization, and the spherical zigzag antenna had a null
in the XZ plane, as expected. It was concluded that the antenna coated with
polycrystalline copper has much better radiation efficiency than the antenna coated with
conductive copper paint. Also, one of the additive manufacturing technologies, SLS, was
21
applied successfully to build complicated structure of spherical and zigzag shapes due to
their good agreements with the predictions.
Another type of printed folded ellipsoidal helix antenna was reported by Huang et al. [9].
To gain the advantages of SLS, a template was laser sintered for winding strips of wired
metal antenna.
Fig. 28. Wired metal antenna with 4 arms and 1.77 turns (left), its template printed with
selective laser sintering (right) [9].
In total, three antennas were designed in the form given in Fig. 29. All three antennas
were shown to have a resonance downshift at a frequency of 2.4 GHz compared to
simulated values. Discrepancies in the plot of return loss came from the SLS machine due
to the difference of size between manufactured and simulated size of antenna. This could
show that the size of the antenna can greatly affect its performance.
22
Fig. 29. Simulated and measured reflective coefficients for (a) antenna with 4 arms, 1.77
turns, 5mm radius, (b) 4 arms, 0.747 turns, 10mm radius, (c) 2 arms, 1.65 turns, 17.5mm
radius [9].
1.2.3 Jetting Technique
The jetting technique can be divided into two categories. The first is binder jetting [10].
A printer that uses binder jetting has binder feeders, and the material comes out
selectively from the binder and is placed on to a powder bed. Once the formation of a
23
layer is completed, another pile of powder drops gradually, and a leveling roller or blade
smooths the surface of the powder. This process is repeated until the whole process is
complete. There have many advantages: binder jetting does not need to make a
supportive structure. Also, it can use various kinds of materials, such as ceramics and
even food. However, the drawback of the process is durability. The completed structure is
not as strong as one that is printed from the SLS printer. Therefore, when the structure is
built completely using the process of binder jetting, post-processing will be needed to
make it more durable.
The second category is the material jetting technique [11]. This technique uses filaments
in a liquid or molten state, and they are selectively sprayed through the multiple jet heads.
Common sources that are used in this process are liquid photopolymers, which should be
cured with UV light after the deposition of each layer. One of the most important
characteristics of material jetting process is that it is able to make a single structure with
different kinds of materials that have different properties and characteristics. It is because
the printer adopts a process that allows the simultaneous deposition of various kinds of
filaments all at once. Furthermore, component fabricated with material jetting is able to
get a smooth finish after the formation.
Antennas fabricated with jetting technique have been reported in some literatures. A
terahertz horn antenna based on a hollow-core electromagnetic crystal structure was
reported by Wu et al. [12]. The authors adopted the polymer jetting technique to fabricate
this antenna because it is difficult to fabricate using other methods. The antenna has a
geometry of tapered channel shape and it is hard to apply the commonly used method of
24
designing electromagnetic crystal structure. Jetting technology is an only applicable
method for a uniform cross section. Also, the authors used the advantages of
simultaneous deposition to make the model with two different kinds of materials, a model
and a support material. After the formation was completed, the water-soluble support
material was washed away with a high-pressure water spray. Polymer jetting technique
reduced the cost and fabricated the model faster than the conventional and common
methods that are used in this structure.
Fig. 30. The printed horn antenna with electromagnetic crystal (EMXT) structure [12].
In another paper, dielectric reflectarrays were fabricated using the jetting technique [13].
In this work, the authors designed three models of reflectarrays. The first two models,
referred to as design 1 and design 2, are similar in their geometries. However, for design
2, the authors used variable-height dielectric slabs, which were low-cost. A polymer
jetting prototype 3D printer (Object Eden 350) was used due to its capability of realizing
rapid prototyping at a low-cost. After the printing process, three fabricated models of
25
reflectarrays were coated with gold layers using the electropolating process. After the 6-
hour coating step, the gold layer was 6𝜇𝑚 thick. Fig.31 illustrates the fabricated
prototypes of the reflectarrays.
Fig. 31. Top views of the printed dielectric reflectarrays, Design 1(left), Design
2(middle), Design 3(right) [13].
The reflectarrays were measured using a vector network analyzer with W-band extension
heads. A feeding horn antenna with the specification of 12 dB gain at 100 GHz was used,
and another W-band horn antenna was placed at a far field distance to measure the
radiation patterns in the XZ-plane. As expected, they had a good agreement between the
simulated and measured plots. Through this study, the authors could realize high-gain
antennas and approach the range of THz frequencies. Integration of the antenna and lens
was processed by using the 3D inkjet printing method. The antenna and lens were
integrated using the 3D inkjet printing method. A lens was integrated with a helix
antenna, which has a non-planar characteristic [14]. The authors used both 3D printing
methods and 2D inkjet printing of metal. The helical antenna and lens were fabricated
26
progressively, and then the antenna was metalized using silver nanoparticle ink. In the
fabrication process, there were some limitations of work volume and printing skill. The
work area was narrow, and only the half of the whole structure was metalized. However,
these limitations were sublimated into an advantage to save cost and material and without
harming the performance of the antenna. Fig.32 shows the fabricated antennas and
integrated structure of lens and antenna.
Fig. 32. 3D printed two-turn helix antenna and the integration of lens and antenna [14].
By combining the lens and antenna, there was an increase in peak gain of 4.6 dB
compared to the helical antenna without a lens structure. Also, the directivity of the
antenna was increased, as shown in the Fig.33, 34, and 35.
27
Fig. 33. Simulated and measured LHCP gain patterns at 9 GHz with lens and without
lens [14].
Fig. 34. . Simulated and measured RHCP gain patterns at 9 GHz with lens and without
lens [14].
28
Fig. 35. Measured radiation patterns at 9 GHz, helical antenna (left), helical antenna
combined with Fresnel lens (right) [14].
Through this study, Farooqui et al. offered the possibility that two different structures
could be combined easily with new printing technology, rather than with conventional
ways that consume a lot of material and use too slow a process to realize the 3D RF
structures.
1.2.4 Electronic Beam Melting (EBM)
The electronic beam melting (EBM) method is similar to the SLM method as they both
use powder bed fusion. However, the EBM uses an electron beam instead of the high-
power laser beam that is used in the SLM. Metal powder is used as the material of EBM
and is built into several layers using a computer. The computer that controls the electron
beam in a vacuum is connected with the printer. The whole process occurs under high
temperatures of up to 1000℃. Unfortunately, EBM is not common in the market of 3D
printing technology due to its high cost, slow process speed and limited availability of
29
materials. However, it is still used in the field of aerospace and medical implants.
Currently, the most common material is pure titanium.
In antenna manufacturing, some horn antennas that were designed for the Ku-band (12-
15 GHz) region are reported by Tsang et al. [15]. In this work, the authors analyzed the
effect of surface roughness by using the EBM process. This process has a disadvantage in
finishing the surface of printed structures due to the characteristics of its material. Powder
is used for printing with the EBM method, and surface finish is highly dependent on the
particle size of the powder. If the particle is too small, it will be explosive during the
printing process; thus, the particle size is too big to make a perfectly flat structure
surface. Measurements show that the order of tens of microns at the surface could lead to
an uneven surface of the structure. In Fig. 36, two printed horns with 25.9 and 39.7 µm
surface roughness without any post-processing and one commercial reference horn from
Pasternack are given. The authors designed the horn antennas with dimensions similar to
the reference horn to avoid differences other than the roughness. However, the antennas
differed slightly in the lengths and widths, and these differences led to different gains and
directivities.
30
Fig. 36. The reference horn (left) and the 3D printed horns with 25.9 micrometer
roughness (middle) and with 39.7 micrometer roughness (right) with EBM method [15].
In the final result, the transmittances of the horn antennas were measured to determine
the effect of the roughness on 3D-printed antennas.
Fig. 37. Measured transmissions of reference horn and the printed horns [15].
In the given graph, the reference horn and the printed horn with a roughness of 25.9 µm
were fairly matched with the simulated result. However, the printed horn with a
31
roughness of 39.7 µm, which had almost twice the surface roughness, had a 1dB loss in
the performance. Consequently, not only for the EBM process but also for other 3D
printing technologies, it is critical to do post-processing steps that include polishing after
the printing process to optimize the performance of the printed antenna.
1.2.5 Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the most frequently used types of 3D
printing technology. An FDM printer uses a thermoplastic filament, which is heated and
extruded through the nozzles. Like other printing techniques, the printer based on FDM
method is closely related to the CAD program. When an user first makes the CAD file
using the program, it divides the structure into layers that the extruder can form. By using
this file, the printer is ready for the process. It heats thermoplastic until it reaches the
melting point. Then the heated thermoplastic comes out through the extrusion nozzles,
and the nozzles move along a path that is calculated by the CAD program. The 3D printer
has a computer in it so that it transforms the dimensions of a structure into Cartesian
coordinates and manipulates the nozzles according to the calculated path during printing.
As the first type of 3D printing technology, several printers adopted FDM method are
sold in the market. Users can purchase the printers with inexpensive price due to their
commercialization.
On the other hand, there is a main disadvantage that FDM printer has a lower resolution
than other printers using SLS and SLA [16]. At a few GHz and THz frequencies (higher
than 100 GHz), surface finish can affect largely to measured results of RF components.
32
Therefore, there are trade-offs between user-friendly, ubiquitous characteristics and
lower-resolution characteristic and the drawbacks are remained as future work.
In several literatures, antennas fabricated with FDM technology are suggested. A
miniaturized log-periodic dipole antenna fabricated with FDM method was reported by
Nassar et al. [17]. They used acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which is one of the most
frequently used filaments in the FDM process. It has a relative dielectric constant of 2.4,
loss tangent of 0.0038, and a thickness of 60mils. The target frequency range of the log
periodic dipole antenna is 2-4 GHz. The authors explained that they used the FDM
technique to overcome the spatial problem when fabricating the antenna and take the
advantages of reduced weight, size, cost, and material usage.
Fig. 38. The fabricated log-periodic dipole antenna and its proposed illustration [17].
However, 0.5 dB gain degradation was observed, together with 13% reduction of size.
From this case, there is a trade-off between reduction of size and the gain of the antenna.
33
In another case, an 8-turn helix antenna was printed using the FDM technique [18]. In the
fabrication process of the helical antenna, the authors wanted to make water-tight
microfluidic channels without any support structure. Because there is no support layer
when using FDM, the authors adopted FDM technology as the fabrication of helix
structure. Also, by implementing over-extrusion, the body of helical structure realized the
non-porous surface and was able to be printed at a higher temperature to increase the
degree of adhesion among the layers. A low-cost microfluidic helical structure was
rapidly realized and a much greater number of thermoplastic materials, not just the
NinjaFlex filament that was used in this paper, could be applied with the FDM method.
Fig. 39. 8-turn helix antenna with using FDM method [18].
A microwave patch antenna was fabricated using the FDM method and reported by Liang
et al. [19]. This antenna was designed to operate at the frequency of 7.5 GHz. Antenna
was constructed with two methods: One was an ultrasonic embedded wire mesh structure
for the conductive part and the other one was FDM for the dielectric section. Compared
34
to other 3D printed antennas and conventional PCB techniques, the authors used two
methods simultaneously to make the antenna perform at the frequency of 7.5 GHz, to be
fabricated on any surfaces, including curvatures, and realized in 3D form. The figure
shows the 3D-printed microwave patch antenna using the ultrasonic embedded wire
meshing process and FDM technology.
Fig. 40. The fabricated microwave patch antenna [19].
The authors compared the results of the reflection coefficient and the H-plane radiation
pattern of the antenna at 7.5 GHz. The measured reflection coefficient was matched well
with a clear resonance peak of –14 dB at a frequency of 7.5 GHz. The realized gain was
5.5 dB, and the half power beam width was 114°. A good agreement between
measurement and simulation results was achieved. The combination of the ultrasonic
metal wire mesh embedding method and FDM could maximize the quality of fabrication.
Specifically, there were no conventional methods in whole steps of fabrication, such as
high temperature conductor printing and metal sintering. These conventional methods can
35
lead to damage or deformation of the dielectric substrate. By adopting two methods, the
authors could realize the patch antenna at low cost and make the steps of fabrication more
convenient and faster. In addition, many other antennas were fabricated and realized with
this method. FDM-based antennas are competitive with other commercial antennas. FDM
method is also adopted for the fabrication of dielectric zone plate lens and helical antenna
in the following chapters.
1.3 Summary
Several literatures about 3D-printed antennas have suggested in this chapter. Advantages
of 3D printing which have the characteristics of time-reducing, lower cost and ability of
realizing curvy 3D structures are introduced in the literatures. Moreover, due to the
advantages of additive manufacturing (AM), 3D printing is now widely adopted to
fabricate RF and millimeter wave (mmW) components. However, most of the literatures
concentrate on one side of the components, such as the antenna itself or component itself.
On the other hand, following chapters focus on both antenna and RF, MMW component.
It is important to show that the 3D printing process can be applied to many RF, MMW
structures, and not just for antennas. Before fabrication of the components, measuring the
dielectric characteristics of the materials that are widely used in 3D printing technology
could be an important post-step of fabrication of RF and mmW components. For this
reason, the time-domain spectroscopy, also known as the TDS system, is introduced and
used to measure the dielectric constant of PLA and ABS. In chapters 3 and 4,
representative of the periodic structure, the Fresnel lens is introduced and fabricated with
36
two types of phasing correction, which are used to make the structure perforated and
grooved. Also, the helical antenna, which has characteristics of high gain and directivity,
is discussed and its fabrication steps are introduced. Defining the dielectric characteristics
of filament can set the researchers on the right direction of fabricating antennas and other
RF components. Besides, modeling, fabricating and measuring the antenna and RF
component can suggest how the combination of additive manufacturing and RF field can
be realized in the right way.
37
Chapter 2: Dielectric Characterization of Polylactic Acid (PLA)
2.1 Introduction
Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most frequently used filaments in 3D printing.
Compared to ABS, which is also commonly used, PLA exhibits less warping. Thus, the
model can be printed with less distortion on the surface when using FDM method.
Uneven surface of the RF component can critically affect to the measurement at MMW
and THz frequencies. To avoid the warping issue, PLA was chosen as the material of the
dielectric lens in the following chapter.
However, at mmW and THz frequencies, dielectric permittivity should be defined exactly
by finding the complex permittivity [20]. Loss factor of the material is related to the
imaginary part and thus, it should be determined by experimenting with analyzer. Also,
defining dielectric permittivity is important because it is critically related to the
geometries of RF instruments. Therefore, in this chapter, by using THz time domain
spectroscopy, transmittance, phase change, permittivity and loss tangent are defined in
the THz frequency range. Also, by finding the dielectric constant and loss tangent at
lower frequency such as 500 MHz up to 1.5 GHz and being compared with the results in
the THz frequency range, dielectric characteristics of PLA can be exactly defined on both
frequency ranges.
38
2.2 Analytical Model
All the data were gathered from the commercial THz time domain spectroscopy system
(THz-TDS), TPS Spectra 3000 from TeraView Ltd. THz-TDS system uses the amplitude
and the phase of reflected and transmitted electric fields of a pulsed wave in free space.
Electric fields for reference air and PLA samples are measured to derive the complex
transmission coefficient from the ratio of the electric field between reference air and PLA
samples [21], which is written as
4𝑛̌ 2𝜋𝑓(𝑛̌ − 1)
𝐸𝑃𝐿𝐴 exp⁡(−𝑗 𝑡)
(𝑛̌ + 1)2 𝑐 (1)
𝑇= =
𝐸𝑅𝑒𝑓_𝐴𝑖𝑟 (𝑛̌ − 1)2 4𝜋𝑓𝑛̌
1− exp⁡(−𝑗 𝑡)
(𝑛̌ + 1)2 𝑐
where t denotes the thickness of PLA samples. Transmission coefficient is closely related
to the refractive index, 𝑛̌, which is associated with the relative permittivity, 𝜀r . Relative
permittivity of PLA, 𝜀r , is modeled using Havriliak-Negami relation [22].
𝜀𝑠 − 𝜀∞ (2)
𝜀𝑟 = 𝜀∞ +
(1 + (𝑗𝜔𝜏)1−𝛼 )𝛽
The equation can approximate the complex relative permittivity of PLA [23]. 𝜀𝑠 and 𝜀∞
are limiting low- and high-frequency dielectric constants;⁡𝜏 refers to the mean relaxation
time, 𝜔 represents angular frequency, and 𝛼⁡and 𝛽 are asymmetry and broadness of the
corresponding spectra, respectively [24-25]. 𝜀∞ , 𝜀𝑠 , 𝜏, 𝛼⁡and 𝛽 are unknown variables and
they can be derived from the optimization of non-linear least square fit and gathered data
from THz-TDS system are used to draw the values of unknown variables.
39
2.3 Measurement setup
THz-TDS system, TPS Spectra 3000 from TeraView, Ltd from Fig. 41, was used to
measure the change of transmittance and phase of the pulse wave through PLA samples.
Fig. 41. THz-TDS system TPS Spectra 3000 from TeraView, Ltd.
Measurement was started with removing the water vapor and 𝑂2 by injecting 𝑁2 to the
space where the samples were located. Water vapor and 𝑂2 could affect the results of
measurement due to its absorption [26]. Measurement was performed at 60 GHz to 3 THz,
and analyzed at 300 GHz to 800 GHz because in that range, the level of signal-to-noise
ratio was low and acceptable. Three samples of PLA, 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm, and 1.0 mm were
used for the measurement.
40
The other experimental tool, impedance/material analyzer (E4991A from Agilent) from
Fig. 42, was used to check the real part of the dielectric constant and loss tangent at lower
frequency range of 1 MHz up to 3 GHz.
Fig. 42. Measurement of PLA sample with Impedance/Material analyzer (E4991A from
Agilent)
As shown in Fig. 42, by using the spring clip fixture, PLA samples which have thickness
of 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm, and 1.0 mm were measured. Other than the previous measurement,
the impedance/material analyzer was just needed to be calibrated with Teflon to set up
the reference level of permittivity and loss tangent. There was no purging process
because the experiment was conducted in the air and also the absorption loss caused by
water and 𝑂2 did not largely affect to the measurement at lower frequency than the
previous experiment.
41
Before the two experiments were started, thicknesses of PLA samples were measured
with micrometer. Due to uneven surface of the PLA samples, 4 points of each sample
were measured and average thickness of 4 points was chosen.
2.4 Experimental results
Fig. 43. Amplitude change of transmission coefficient (above) and phase change for 0.8
mm-thick PLA sample (bottom)
As mentioned in section 2.3, three samples were firstly measured with THz-TDS system.
One of the results of PLA sample, which has thickness of 0.8 mm, are depicted in Fig. 43.
Experimental results and data from analytical model have good agreements from Fig. 43.
In the experimental data, some oscillations in the plot exist due to remained water vapor
42
and 𝑂2 . They can cause some absorption loss and ripples. Also, the samples were printed
with layer-by-layer method. Therefore, there would be the reflection and transmission of
the light among the layers and if the layers are uneven, then oscillations and ripples could
appear in the transmission plot. However, those ripples and oscillations does not affect
the pattern of the plot and the results can be acceptable from the graphs.
43
In Fig.44-46, dielectric constants and loss tangent values of all three PLA samples are
plotted.
44
Thickness Thickness Static 0.3 0.8
(Expected) (Modeling) permittivity THz(𝜀𝑟 , 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝛿) THz(𝜀𝑟 , 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝛿)
(𝜀𝑠 )
0.6 mm 0.54 mm 2.58 2.48, 0.05 2.32, 0.09
0.8 mm 0.74 mm 2.86 2.76, 0.05 2.66, 0.09
1.0 mm 0.92 mm 2.72 2.66, 0.046 2.58, 0.08
Table. 1. Measured results from THz-TDS system
Table. 1 schematizes the thickness, real permittivity, and loss tangent of three PLA
samples from Fig. 44-46. Even though there were discrepancies at real and imaginary
dielectric constant, loss tangent is the ratio of imaginary to real part of dielectric constant
and the values are close among three samples with 0.05-0.09.
At 30 GHz, which is the target frequency of Fresnel lens in the following chapter,
dielectric constant and loss tangent were characterized with the analytical model from
chapter 2.2 based on the data from THz-TDS system. Table. 2 shows the results at 30
GHz derived from the data and analytical model.
Thickness 𝜀𝑠 𝜀∞ 𝜏 𝛼 𝛽 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝛿
0.6 mm 2.58 1.00 0.02 0.36 1.00 0.01
0.8 mm 2.86 1.00 0.02 0.34 1.00 0.01
1.0 mm 2.72 1.00 0.02 0.27 1.00 0.008
Table. 2. Thickness, relaxation time, and loss tangent of PLA at 30 GHz
From Table. 2, PLA samples have 2.58-2.86 of dielectric constants and 0.008-0.01 of loss
tangent. Dielectric constants have same values with the results based on the data from 0.3
45
THz to 0.8 THz. However, loss tangent decreased due to its 10 times lower frequency
range.
Next is the measurement with impedance/material analyzer at the lower frequency range
of 0.5 GHz to 1 GHz. 4 points of each sample was measured and box plots for
permittivity and loss tangent are given in Fig. 47 and 48.
Fig. 47. Real dielectric constant vs. thickness of PLA samples
46
Fig. 48. Loss tangent vs. thickness of PLA samples
The measurement with impedance/material analyzer was conducted at the frequency
range of 1 MHz-3 GHz. However, the reasonable range of frequency was from 0.5 GHz
to 1 GHz because there were many oscillations and ripples due to high signal to noise
ratio at the range of 1 MHz-0.5 GHz and 1 GHz-3 GHz. Different points on each sample
achieved different thickness because 3D printer, which was used to fabricate PLA
samples, adopts low-resolution characteristic of FDM method. This characteristic can
lead to the difference of thickness in each sample. Due to the difference of thickness in
each sample, range of real permittivity and loss tangent is broad. To show the broadness
of range and get the average points of each result, box plots are chosen. Real dielectric
constants are from 2.5 to 2.8 and loss tangents are from 0.0016 to 0.0022 from Fig. 47
and 48.
47
2.5 Summary
PLA samples, which have thickness of 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm, were measured with
two different tools with different frequency ranges. In the measurement with impedance/
material analyzer at lower frequency range of 0.5 GHz -1 GHz, various values of
dielectric constants and loss tangent in each sample were shown in the plot. Also, from
the measurement with THz-TDS system, patterns of the results were close to those from
impedance/analyzer. Data results of dielectric constant are close between the ones from
THz-TDS system and impedance/material analyzer with the values of 2.5 to 2.8.
However, the main difference between two experiments is loss tangent and its value
increases with 10 times higher as the frequency increases. Material which is used to
fabricate RF components is always needed to be defined its dielectric characteristic to
simulate and measure the fabricated device more accurately.
48
Chapter 3: Design and analysis of Fresnel lens
3.1 Introduction
Traditional lens structures are widely used in optics. They are frequently used in imaging
systems to magnify the small objects or in energy systems to harvest more solar energy
without using expensive or larger cells. Furthermore, the use of lens structures in mmW
and THz frequency devices is continuously being adopted. In detail, dielectric Fresnel
lens, which is able to be used in the range of GHz and THz frequency, is one of the best
alternatives to traditional reflector antenna. Due to its high directivity and beam focusing
characteristic, Fresnel lens can be implemented in satellite communication and radar
systems, which are using Ka-band (26.5 GHz – 40 GHz). Also, the main spectrum of
today’s wireless communication systems is saturated and more bandwidths are needed.
Therefore, the devices should be focused on mmW (30- 300 GHz) and THz field to adopt
the broad bandwidth and avoid the saturated microwave spectrum (i.e., <3 GHz). Due to
high frequency, miniaturization and integration of the lens and antenna are important
topics because size of the device is mostly correlated to the wavelength of the
electromagnetic wave that has a length of few millimeters in mmW band. In terms of
miniaturizing lens and antenna, adopting the way to design and fabricate the structures is
significant and complicated. Moreover, conventional ways such as using PCB are not
suitable for the non planar structures. They are time-consuming, and need elaborate
soldering skill to fabricate the model.
On the other hand, another fabrication method is 3D printing which is simpler to use and
can offer low-cost and minimal labor time. In many literatures [27-29], different shapes
49
of lenses fabricated with 3D printers were introduced. However, specifically in this work,
the most common material and fabrication method are chosen to show how ubiquitous
this approach is and how simple this method is. PLA (polylactic acid) is adopted as the
material of Fresnel lens and FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) is chosen as the way to
fabricate Fresnel lens.
3.2 Lens design
Fresnel lens uses diffraction as a way to focus electromagnetic wave at the focal point. A
discrete stepwise pattern can achieve the phase correction, which was firstly suggested by
Lord Rayleigh [30]. Soret’s way to improve the focusing ability of the lens was revised
and improved by Rayleigh with using whole full-wave zones to reverse the phase of the
incident wave. Based on this theory, various ways have been offered and achieved the
desired phase correction. One method, which is one of the simplest and commonly used
methods, is to make the annular rings with the dielectric material. The rings can make
two kinds of zones, which are called full-wave zones and subzones. First, the outer radii
of the zones, 𝑅𝐹 , are calculated by [31-32].
𝑅𝐹 = √(𝑛𝜆/4)2 + 2𝑛𝐷𝜆/4, 𝑛 = 1,2, … , 𝐿 (3)
where L is the number of full-wave zones multiplied by the number of subzones, D is the
focal length of the lens and 𝜆 is the wavelength. Also, the thickness of lens is relative to
the step size. The step size of the lens is determined by,
𝑇𝐹 =
𝜆
⁡(𝑘 = √𝜀𝑟 ) (4)
4∗(𝑘−1)
50
4 full-wave zones with 3 subzones in each full-wave zone with the most bottom
supporting layer have the phase correction of 90°. Total number of zones, L, is 16. 3D
schematic of the designed lens is shown in Fig. 49.
Fig. 49. 3D schematic of the designed Fresnel lens
Minimum and maximum radii of the lens, calculated by (1), are 14.4 mm and 69.3 mm,
respectively. The size of step, 𝑇𝐹 , is 3.6 mm with the 𝜀𝑟 , 2.853, based on the time domain
spectroscopy and material analyzer measurements (see chapter 2). There are 3 steps in the
lens and 1 supporting layer, which has a thickness of 1 mm. Total thickness of the lens is
11.8 mm (3.6 mm⁡× 3 + 1 mm).
3.3 Simulation
4-zone Fresnel lens was simulated by using ANSYS-HFSS full-wave simulator. First, the
focusing ability of the lens was simulated to test how well the lens could gather the
51
electromagnetic wave at the focal point of which was set up at the stage of design. To
visualize the focusing ability, incident plane wave was applied on the plane, which was
20 mm away from the flat side of the lens. Also, non-model planes were applied to the
cross section of the lens to check E-field plots. The direction of scattering the
electromagnetic wave could be visualized in the next figures.
(a) (b)
Fig. 50. (a) E-field plot (magnitude) (left) and (b) E-field plot (magnitude with phase)
(right)
Fig. 50 shows how the electromagnetic wave is being focused at a single focal point. The
red spot is where the electromagnetic field has the highest intensity. However, simulation
52
can only show the visual plot of how well the wave is focusd on the focal point. To
quantify the exact value of the focusing ability, the concept of “focusing gain” was used.
Focusing gain is the way to verify the lens’ focusing ability and it is introduced in [33].
|𝑅𝑒[𝑧̂ ∙⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝑆𝑐 ]| (5)
𝐹𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐺𝑎𝑖𝑛 = ⃗⃗⃗⃗𝑖 ]|
|𝑅𝑒[𝑧̂ ∙𝑆 𝑐
Focusing gain stands for the ratio of the real parts of z-axial components of the pointing
vector of the electromagnetic wave after penetrating the lens to the real parts of z-axial
components of the pointing vector of the incident plane wave. Full wave simulation can
extract the whole pointing vectors of the incident wave so that we can extract the
focusing gain.
Fig. 51. Focusing gain vs. distance of 4-zone Fresnel lens
The relationship between focusing gain and distance is depicted in Fig. 51, based on the
results from full-wave simulation. The plot shows that the distance of 40 mm has the
53
maximum focusing gain of around 20.3 dB. We note that the lens was intended to have a
focal point of 40 mm. Therefore, it was designed appropriately.
The next step of simulation was to check if the lens was able to operate properly with the
antenna at the target frequency. In other words, 4-zone lens was simulated in the same
environment of the measurement. However, the structure had 16 cylinders and each had
stepwise shape. Therefore, meshing the whole structure with a full-wave simulation
program is hard due to its discrete connecting parts between two stepwise shapes and the
program will suffer from memory limit problem. To compensate, symmetric boundary
conditions were implemented in the 4-zone Fresnel lens.
Fig. 52. Simulation schematic before applying symmetric boundary condition
54
Fig. 53. Simulation schematic after applying symmetric boundary condition
From Fig. 53, size of the simulated model decreased by one fourth of the full structure
model of Fig. 52 using symmetric boundary conditions. Perfect E condition was applied
on the YZ plane (red line and blue line) and Perfect H condition was applied on the XZ
plane (red line and green line). Symmetric boundary condition could make the structure
simple and reduce the memory load when simulating.
Next step was to find the phase center of the horn antenna. Focal length should be
measured from the phase center to the lens. Therefore, exact distance should be
determined when the location of the phase center at the target frequency has to be set up.
Phase center of the horn antenna could be defined as the point of minimal phase angle
variation. In full-wave simulation, angle variation could be calculated by setting the peak-
to-peak value of continuous angle.
55
Fig. 54. Phase angle variation vs. distance in the horn antenna
Fig. 55. Distance between the lens and horn antenna after phase center consideration
56
In the given plot of Fig. 54, minimum variation of the phase angle was reached at the
distance of 39 mm. It was referred from Fig. 55 that the point which is 39 mm away from
the waveguide of the horn antenna was the phase center of the antenna at 30 GHz.
Therefore, the focal length between the horn and lens should be measured from that point
to the bottom of the lens.
After the setup of symmetric boundary conditions and phase center, two simulations were
conducted to derive the radiation patterns of horn antenna. First simulation was for the
horn antenna without lens and the second simulation was for the horn antenna with lens
to check the gain enhancement and other improvements of performance. The horn
antenna, Narda V637, which was used in the measurement, was designed with the full-
wave simulation based on the data sheet to realize the same environment as measurement.
Fig. 56. Simulation results for the gain of horn antenna without and with lens
57
Fig. 56 shows that gain of the horn antenna without the lens was 16.2 dB and half power
beam width, HPBW, was 30° at 30 GHz. Simulation results for the horn antenna with the
lens had a gain of 22.8 dB. Approximately 7 dB enhancement in gain was achieved and
HPBW was 8°, which was decreased by 22°.
3.4 Fabrication
Lens was fabricated using 3D fused deposition modeling (FDM), Ultimaker 2+. Because
FDM is relatively low-cost and fast fabrication method compared to other 3D printing
methods such as stereolithography (SLA) and selective laser sintering (SLS), it was
adopted as the way to manufacture the lens.
Polylactic acid (PLA), which is one of the basic 3D printing materials of FDM printer,
was adopted as a material for the lens. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) could be as
an alternative for PLA. However, distortion could occur on the supporting layer, which is
the most bottom part of the lens due to its warping characteristic. On the other hand, PLA
does not have any contraction issue after printing. Also, a strength of bonding among
layers of PLA is much stronger than layers of ABS. This can reduce the possibility of
software error because when the layers are stick with the strong power, then the software
can make the information of the layers easily when slicing each layer. Therefore, PLA
was adopted instead of ABS.
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Fig. 57. Lens fabricated with PLA
Fig. 57 shows the final fabricated model of Fresnel lens with PLA. Lens had the same
geometries as the ones at the design stage (see chapter 3.2) and 23-hour printing time was
totally taken with FDM printer.
3.5 Measurement and results
Performance of the lens was measured in an anechoic chamber. OFR 6413, diagonal horn,
was used as a transmitting antenna. Supporting structure for the measurement was made
of Styrofoam not to disturb the route of electromagnetic wave and not to occur the
reflection when measuring the lens in the chamber. Dielectric constant of Styrofoam is
nearly same as the air so that the electromagnetic wave, which is penetrating the lens, is
not distorted by the supporting structure. Cable, which was connected to the receiving
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antenna, taped firmly so that it made the rotating column and the cable stick together.
Network analyzer, N5235A PNA-L from Keysight, was used to gather the data of
transmission coefficient to plot the radiation pattern of co-polarization. Another network
analyzer, N5250A PNA, was used to measure the cross-polarization of the horn antenna
with lens. Due to an unavailability of network analyzer and circumstance of measurement,
co-polarization and cross-polarization were measured on different dates with different
analyzers.
Fig. 58. Measurement setup in the anechoic chamber (side view)
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Fig. 59. Measurement setup without lens (close view)
Two measurements were performed in the chamber. The first measurement was shown in
Fig. 58 and 59. Receiving antenna, Narda V637, was measured first without lens to check
its radiation pattern and it was compared with simulation results.
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Fig. 60. Radiation pattern of the horn antenna (Narda V637) without lens
Fig. 60 shows the results of simulation and measurement had good agreements. The
measured frequency range was from 27 GHz to 33 GHz and 𝜃 was investigated from -90°
to 90°. The gain of simulation was 16.1 dB as compared to the measured gain of 15.5 dB.
There was a slight difference of 0.6 dB. However, this was an acceptable difference and
also HPBW from the simulation was 30° as compared to the measured HPBW of 28°,
which had a good agreement between the simulation and measurement.
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Fig. 61. Measurement setup with lens (close view)
Next, the second measurement was for the horn antenna with lens and shown in Fig. 61.
Measurement setup was same as previous measurement. However, the lens was located in
front of the horn antenna. During the measurement, lens should be perpendicular to the
direction of electromagnetic wave and also should not be changed into the different
position. By using two Styrofoam plates, lens could keep the perpendicular position to
the receiving antenna. Also, fixing the distance between the receiving antenna and the
lens is one of the important factors that can critically affect the measurement results. To
keep the distance between the lens and antenna, a foam sheet, which has length of 23.2
mm, was used between the Styrofoam plate and front aperture of the receiving antenna.
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Fig. 62. Radiation pattern of the horn antenna with lens
As shown in Fig.62, radiation pattern of the horn antenna was changed by using the lens.
First, the gain was enhanced up to 24.6 dB. Simulation result was 22.8 dB, which had a
discrepancy of 2 dB. However, expected gain enhancement was from 6 dB to 7 dB and
the measurement result could reach to the expected improvement of the gain. Also, the
main lobe of radiation pattern had HPBW of 6°, which had nearly same value as
simulation result of 8°.
The biggest discrepancy between the simulated and measured radiation pattern was the
shifting in the plot. In Fig. 60, measured maximum gain appeared at 4°, which was not at
0°. Also in Fig. 62, measured maximum gain was achieved at 5°. Disagreement with 𝜃
was expected due to the misalignment of horn antenna. To verify the reason of shifting in
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the radiation plot, a simulation with the designed horn antenna was done with tilted
position.
Fig. 63. Simulation of horn antenna with tilted position (10° in x-axis)
As can be seen from Fig. 63, the boresight of the designed horn antenna is misaligned
with the z-axis. The discrepancy between the z-axis and the boresight of the horn is 10°.
Simulation results indicate that the horn antenna is not set up in the right position but
tilted, producing a shifting of the antenna radiation pattern, as shown in Fig. 64.
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Fig. 64. Simulated radiation pattern of horn antenna in the tilted position
In Fig. 64, the blue line shows the horn antenna when the center of the horn antenna is
exactly on the z-axis. Red line shows the horn antenna when there is a discrepancy of 10°
between the z-axis and the center of horn antenna. As can be seen from the figure,
parallel translation in the radiation plot happened when the receiving horn antenna was
tilted in the direction of x-axis, which is upward perpendicular direction of z-axis. From
this simulation, it could be concluded that parallel translation in the radiation patterns is
due to the misalignment of horn antenna in the direction of radiated electromagnetic
wave.
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Fig. 65. Measured radiation pattern of cross-polarization (Only horn and horn with lens)
Next, the cross polarization of the horn antenna was also measured in the anechoic
chamber. Fig. 65 shows the measurement results of cross-polarization patterns of horn
antenna with and without lens. The plot was shown that undesired polarization was also
affected by the lens as the gain enhanced for 6 dB to 7 dB, which was the same value in
the plot of the desired polarization. One reason is the fabricated lens has symmetric
structure in all directions including the cross-polarization. However, if it has asymmetric
structure when the cross section of the cross-polarization is checked, then the
electromagnetic wave cannot gain the right phase correction and it will be scattered away
so that the gain will not increase at undesired polarization. This issue will be investigated
as a future work of this research.
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3.6 Conclusion
The Fresnel lens was designed, simulated, fabricated and measured. To make the
simulation similar to the circumstance of the measurement, whole structures of the
receiving horn antenna and lens were modeled in the full wave simulation. By applying
symmetric boundary conditions on the planes of XZ and YZ, whole structures could be
simulated with reducing the discrete parts of the lens and horn antenna. Also, phase
center of the horn antenna was calculated by field calculator of the full-wave simulation
program to decide the exact distance between the lens and the horn antenna, which is one
of the most important factors of the performance of lens.
The important geometries were decided by the simulation and they are implemented in
the fabrication. PLA was used as material of the lens and FDM 3D printer was adopted to
print the lens.
The final step of this research, measurement, could show how it worked well with
antenna and matched the simulation results. As expected, lens could gather the
electromagnetic waves at the focal point and gain enhancement could be shown in the
measurement results. Measured horn antenna could get a gain enhancement of 6 dB and
also HPBW decreased by 6°, which means the increase of directivity.
Single structure of the lens was fabricated at this time. However, in the future, the
structure can be modified with smaller scales and modeled with the form of array pattern.
It can be implemented to the patch array antenna to gain an improvement of performance
in terms of dissipated power, gain, and directivity. Also, to make the structure more
complicated, it should be available not only at one-directional antenna but also beam-
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steering antenna. Beam-steering antenna can change the phase of beam. According to the
phase of beam, the structure, which can improve the performance of antenna, also has to
set the improved phase beam. Therefore, a periodic structure, such as Fresnel lens, can set
the phase of beam and be applied to the patch antenna with the form of array pattern, it
can be more powerful and practical add-on in RF field.
Undesired polarization was also enhanced with the lens. Addressing this will reamin as
future work. Due to its all-direction symmetric structure, the lens increased not only co-
polarization, but also cross-polarization. This issue can be fixed if the periodic structure
is designed symmetrically only at the cross section, which has the same directions of co-
polarization.
In summary, this study demonstrates the design, fabrication, and measurement of a 3D-
printed dielectric Fresnel lens for millimeter wave application.
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Chapter 4: Design and Analysis of Helical Antenna
4.1 Introduction
Helical antenna was first developed and studied by John Kraus in 1946. First idea was
come from the traveling-wave tubes. In these tubes, there was a long wire helix structure
to amplify the waves using the electron beam. John Kraus thought that if the helical
structure has larger diameter than traveling-wave tube, then it could act as an antenna, not
just for a guiding structure of the wave. By studying and measuring the current
distribution versus wavelength, John Kraus verified that the helix structure could be an
antenna. Also, he found the equations about not only how to choose the geometry but
also how to calculate the radiation pattern of helical antenna. During the measurement, he
could conclude that the helical antenna has a uniform resistive input over a wide
bandwidth and higher gain performance could be achieved over the same bandwidth.
Moreover, he found that helical antenna could be easily manufactured with the array type
of antenna because mutual impedance was negligible [34]. Therefore, he could fabricate
the radio telescope with array of 96 11-turn monofilar axial-mode helical antennas in
1951 [35]. Based on this work, helical antenna has been widely used for many years in
satellite communications due to its circular polarization, high gain and directivity
performance [36]. Also, it can offer broader bandwidth characteristics than those of the
dipoles and can be made with smaller size than monopoles and dipoles by constructing
the antenna with the form of a screw thread at the same frequency. In this case, helical
antenna is designed with axial mode, not normal mode. It has gaps between the loops and
diameter which are in the order of the wavelength or large fractions of it. These
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geometries can achieve the circularly polarized end-fire radiation. On the other hand,
space and diameter in normal mode are very small compared to the wavelength.
Therefore, it has nearly linear polarization like a dipole. Normal mode for helical antenna
has less directivity than axial mode, however, it can be designed for wireless local area
network (WLAN) due to its broad-side radiation.
As aforementioned, helical antenna in axial mode is frequently used in the field of
satellite communication due to its high directivity and gain. C-band, which is one of the
electromagnetic spectrums ranging from 4 to 8 GHz, is related to the satellite
communication and it is the first band that was used in the aerospace field. Also, in
comparison with Ku-band, it has a big advantage of being less influenced by weather
change (i.e. rainfall attenuation). Not only in the field of satellite communication, but also
in Wi-Fi and cordless telephone applications, C-band has been widely used. Therefore,
combining the C-band and broadband characteristics of helical antenna is worth to be
realized.
Fabrication of helix antenna is relatively harder than that of other antennas due to its
screwed shapes of turns. Also, it can take longer time to be fabricated than the planar
structures when using traditional fabrication methods such as PCB or metallic process.
Therefore, 3D printing can be better way of fabrication other than traditional methods
which are time-consuming, have high-cost and difficult to realize complicated shapes. 3D
printing has an advantage of short period of fabrication at a low cost and easy fabrication
of complex shapes such as 3D and curvy structures by using coded files from CAD
programs.
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In this chapter, helical antenna in axial mode, which is performed at the frequency of 5
GHz with high directivity and gain, is discussed with the design, simulation, fabrication
and measurement.
4.2 Antenna design
Helical antenna was designed with the center frequency of 5 GHz in axial mode, which is
in the bandwidth range of 4-6 GHz (C-band). In order to design the diameter and spacing
between the coil of helical antenna, which are the most important factors that can affect
to the performance, the following equations were used.
Diameter of helix (center to center) =

𝜆 (6)
𝜋
Spacing between the coil =

𝜆 (7)
4
Also, the number of turns of helical antenna is set to the value of 10.66. With these values,
geometry of the helical antenna is introduced in Fig. 66 using CAD program, SolidWorks.
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Fig. 66. (a) Full structure of helix antenna, (b) Geometry of the quarter-wave microstrip
line.
Full structure of helix antenna is composed of three parts, helical body with microstip
which electromagnetic wave radiates, holder, and ground plane.
First, helical body has a diameter of 20 mm and the wire itself has a diameter of 3mm.
10.66 turns with each spacing of 15mm make the total height of 162mm. With the holder,
helical body could keep the location perpendicular to the ground plane.
Microstrip was used to match the impedance between the impedance of antenna and 50 Ω
source. Substrate of the microstrip line was air which 𝜀𝑟 equals to 1. It was suspended
from the ground plane and designed with air-substrate to reduce the loss of
electromagnetic wave and current dissipated to the substrate. By using line calculator in
ADS, full structure of microstrip transmission line was modeled with the values in (b) of
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Fig. 66. 3mm gap from the ground plane to the microstrip was set to have the
characteristic impedance of 76⁡Ω.
4.3 Simulation
The helical antenna had been simulated with full-wave simulation, Ansys HFSS. In the
Fig. 67, the structure from the simulation program, which has the same geometry as
SolidWorks, is shown.
Fig. 67. Helical antenna model in HFSS with magnified impedance matching part
For the excitation, coaxial line was used and lumped port was applied to the bottom face
of the line. The coaxial line was composed of the outer and inner cylinders. Outer
cylinder has a radius of 1.675 mm and height of 7 mm. Inner cylinder has radius of
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0.5mm and height of 10 mm and the copper was applied as the material. Geometries of
the coaxial lines were based on the values derived from the line calculator, ADS.
Helical structure and microstrip were simulated with the finite conductivity boundary.
Conductivity of copper, 5.8 × 107 ⁡𝑆/𝑚, was used and skin depth, 𝛿, was 5𝜇𝑚. Between
the antenna and coaxial cable, there is a microstrip transmission line which was designed
by line calculator of ADS to match the impedance between the antenna itself and input
impedance.
Fig. 68. Smith chart of impedance matching from 4 GHz to 6 GHz.
Fig. 68 shows how the antenna and input impedance are matched. As seen from the
figure, at 5 GHz, normalized impedance has 1.2 + 0.02𝑖, which is nearly close to the
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center of the smith. This verifies that impedance between the antenna and 50 Ω source
was well matched with the geometry of the microstrip at the stage of design.
Fig. 69. Return loss of the helical antenna
In Fig. 69, return loss of the helical antenna is presented. From 4 GHz to 5 GHz, it has
the value of less than 15 dB, which means VSWR of 1.43 and reflection coefficient of
0.18.
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Fig. 70. Simulated radiation pattern in right handed (RHCP) and left handed circular
polarization (LHCP)
Also in Fig. 70, 2D radiation patterns with gain in RHCP and LHCP are given. From the
radiation pattern in RHCP, main lobe of the 2D radiation pattern has gain of 14.1 dB at 5
GHz. Calculated value of half power beam width was 31.9° and the simulated value is
around 30°, which had a good agreement with theoretical value. In LHCP, cross
polarization isolation had better than 30 dB.
4.4 Fabrication
Polyjet printer (Object30 Prime) and fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer
(Ultimaker 2+ Extended) were used to fabricate desired antenna structure. Three sections
in helical antenna structure, helical body with microstrip, holder, and ground plane were
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fabricated with the 3D printers aforementioned. Fig. 71, 72, and 73 below show helical
body of antenna, holder, and ground plane, respectively, after fabrication.
Fig. 71. Fabricated helical body of antenna without coating with copper spray (Bare)
Fig. 72. Fabricated holder
Fig. 73. Fabricated ground plane without copper tape (Bare)

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Holder and ground plane were fabricated with FDM printer, Ultimaker 2+ Extended.
Helical body of the antenna and microstrip line was printed by Objet Prime 30 based on
jetting technique. To get higher resolution and lower surface roughness, RGD 720 from
Stratasys, was used as the material of helical body. RGD 720 can lead to better
dimensional stability and gain lower surface roughness compared to other materials [37].
Body part of the helical antenna is directly related to the radiation of the electromagnetic
wave. Also higher surface roughness can lead to antenna loss at the radiating part of the
antenna [38]. Therefore, choosing RGD 720 as the material of helical body is to reduce
the surface roughness and improve the performance of the antenna.
Fig. 74. Fabricated 3D helix antenna (left), the model after metallization (right)
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Fig. 74 shows fabricated helical antenna (left) and the fabricated prototype after
metallization with copper tape and copper coating (right). In detail, the ground plane was
covered with copper tape and the body of the helical antenna was coated with 4 layers of
conductive copper spray. At first, the antenna was painted with brush. However, as can
be seen from Fig. 75, brushed model has more uneven surface than spray-coated model.
Aforementioned, rough surface leads to gain loss in performance. Therefore, spray
instead of brush was adopted as a tool to metallize the body part. Fig. 76 shows the multi-
step coating of the body of helical antenna.
Fig. 75. Brush painted model (Left), Spray painted model (Right)
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Fig. 76. Progression of coatings, from bare (leftmost) to 4th coat (rightmost)
Moreover, resistance was measured with multimeter from the top to the bottom part of
body of helical antenna, which has the total length of 267 mm. As can be seen from Fig.
77, resistance decreased and was more stable with every coat. Number of coating and
resistance measured by multimeter are shown in Table. 3, respectively.
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Resistance Across Helix After
Metalization
35
30
25
Resistance (Ω)
20
15
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of Coats of Copper Paint
Fig. 77. Resistance across helix after metallization
Coating No. Resistance (Ω)

1 28.8
2 12.2
3 6.5
4 5.4
Table. 3. Change of the resistance during the change of coating number
4.5 Measurement and results
Reflection coefficient (𝑆11 ) and radiation pattern of the helical antenna were measured.
First, Agilent N5230A network analyzer was used to measure 𝑆11 over the frequency
range of 4 GHz - 6 GHz and compared with the simulation data. Fig. 78 shows the
reflection coefficient of antenna measured by the network analyzer.
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Fig. 78. Measurement of reflection coefficient by using Agilent N5230A network
analyzer
Through the measurement, the following Fig. 79 shows the plot of the measured data
from the network analyzer.
Fig. 79. Measured data of reflection coefficient

83
Fabricated helical antenna had a maximum return loss of 19.6 dB at 4.86 GHz, which
could verify the acceptable impedance matching. However, comparing the measured and
simulated data (see chapter 4.3), there is a disagreement of return loss value. This
discordance is due to uneven distance between the microstrip and the ground plane. At
the time when the helical antenna was fabricated and measured, the length of the gap was
irregular and discrepancy between the simulation and measurement occurred. However, it
has enough maximum return loss of 19.6 dB and has no drawbacks performing as an
efficient antenna.
Next, the radiation pattern measurement was proceeded in the anechoic chamber with
Cobham H-1479 broad band feed antenna. Fig. 80 and 81 show the process of beam
pattern measurement from the front and back side of the chamber.
Fig. 80. Radiation pattern measurement in the anechoic chamber (Back side)
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Fig. 81. Radiation pattern measurement in the anechoic chamber (Front side)
Due to its right-handed direction of helical turns, the polarization of the radiated field is
circularly polarized in the right-handed direction.
Common radiation cut measurement when ∅ is fixed at 0° plane and 𝜃 varies from
−180° to 180°. The radiation patterns of simulated and fabricated helical antenna are
given in the Fig. 82 and 83.
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Fig. 82. Gain pattern of the helical antenna at the frequency of 4.87 GHz (Co-pol)
Fig. 83. Gain pattern of the helical antenna at the frequency of 4.87 GHz (Cross-pol)
86
It can be seen that for the most of the elevation angles, especially the angles near the
main lobe, the measured pattern has a good agreement with the simulated pattern. The
antenna has a maximum gain of 14 dB and the half power beam width (HPBW) has the
value of 30° with the efficiency of 92%. Undesired polarization, which has the direction
of left-handed, is in the range of 20 dB.
4.6 Conclusion
From this work, helical antenna composed of non-planar body and suspended microstrip
was simulated, fabricated and measured. AutoCAD program, SolidWorks, was used to
design the structure of helical antenna and full-wave simulation, HFSS, was implemented
to simulate the antenna with same geometry from SolidWorks. Simulation results agreed
with the theoretical results from the design equations. Additive manufacturing, especially
SLA and FDM printers took less time to make the structure than other fabrication
methods and realized the non-planar structure appropriately. The results of fabrication
had a good agreement with designed model with SolidWorks. For the measurement, the
radiation patterns of RHCP and LHCP agreed with the simulated patterns in the most
elevation angles and cross polarization isolation, respectively. As a future work,
discrepancies due to the uneven surface roughness and unstable resolution should be
investigated and reduced. Also, coating should be changed into advanced process to
reduce the surface roughness. In millimeter wave application, surface roughness is an
important because it can increase the loss of fabricated antenna. By using 3D
87
profilometer, the surface roughness will be investigated and points that should be
improved can be found.
88
Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1 Summary
A Fresnel lens structure and a helical antenna were designed, simulated and fabricated
using additive manufacturing and measured. A conventional lens such as convex or
concave has disadvantages of having large thickness and heavy weight. Also, it is
composed of many curvatures and non-planar parts, which make the fabrication process
complicated and time-consuming. To overcome the disadvantages, 3D printing
technology, especially FDM method which is user-friendly and one of the basic methods
in 3D printing, was used to fabricate the lens. In addition, new type of lens using
diffraction as phase correction was adopted to reduce the thickness, total weight and
curvy parts of the lens. Because the lens is able to focus the light on the focal point in
optics, this characteristic can be related to the concept that it can also gather the
electromagnetic wave at its specific focal point and can help with enhancing the gain of
antenna at the specific frequency. To verify this characteristic, lens was designed and
simulated by full-wave simulation program. The simulation environment was set up with
nearly the same circumstance of the measurement. The issues of meshing the whole
structures and finding the exact phase center of receiving antenna were solved with
setting the boundary conditions and using the field calculator properly. Expected results
were drawn from the simulation that the gain and directivity of antenna have increased.
Compact range method was used to measure the radiation pattern of antenna with lens.
The result was that gain of antenna increased by 6 dB-7 dB and HPBW decreases by 6°,
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which has narrower main lobe when using the lens and horn together. The performance
of the antenna was improved by using the lens fabricated using 3D printer and it was well
verified through the comparison of simulation and measurement data.
Second, the helical antenna was simulated, fabricated and measured. Same full-wave
simulation and SolidWorks, which were used to design lens, were implemented to model
the antenna. Antenna itself and microstrip were fabricated together with polyjet printer.
Other supportive parts of the helical antenna such as ground plane and holder were
printed using FDM printer. Measuring the antenna also occurred in anechoic chamber
using Compact range method. Well-agreed results with simulation that the fabricated
antenna had a gain of 14 dB and half power beam width of 30° with efficiency of 92%
were achieved in the measurement. Also cross polarization isolation had better than 20
dB which closely agreed with the simulation data.
5.2 Discussion
The topics that should be discussed in the future are the lens’ size, weight, distance
control and the relationship between antenna and lens. Size and weight can be reduced
according to the aperture of antenna. In this work, Fresnel lens was designed using the
equations which was already studied and standardized. More phase correcting zones the
lens has, higher improvement of gain, directivity and focusing ability the antenna can
achieve. However, when the lens was fabricated, the size was much bigger than antenna.
Also, the aperture of antenna is smaller than the surface area of the lens. Then
electromagnetic wave from the antenna will not reach the sections out of the aperture of
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antenna. The parts of the lens that the electromagnetic wave cannot reach are not needed
and they also increase the weight of lens. Therefore, in the next work, the exact aperture
of antenna should be investigated and the size of Fresnel lens should be fit to the aperture
of antenna so that the lens is able to take more advantages of the size and weight. Lens is
a concept of add-on which is added on the antenna, thus, the size and weight of entire
system should increase and this is a trade-off between the gain improvement and
size/weight growth of the entire system. For this reason, means for reducing the size and
weight of the lens will be investigated continuously.
Also, the distance between the lens and antenna was investigated in this work by finding
the phase center of the horn. However, from my understanding, there is no literature that
defines the exact distance between the lens and antenna and the starting point of the
distance. Distance can be defined from the top of the lens to phase center of the antenna,
or from the bottom of the lens to phase center of the antenna. In this work, when focusing
gain was simulated, the starting point of the distance was the bottom surface of the lens.
Therefore, all the simulations and measurements were based on the distance from the
bottom of the lens to phase center of the horn. However, this setup was just for this work
and in the next time, it will be useful to research where the starting point of the distance
between the lens and antenna should be. Also, in the measurement, Styrofoam structure
that was used was not elaborate to fix the exact distance between the lens and antenna. In
mmW and THz frequency range, small amount of change in frequency could affect the
performance of lens. Therefore, in the future, the lens should be firstly studied more in
terms of relationship between the distance and frequency, defined exact value of the
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distance between the lens and antenna, and then should be measured with the tunable and
elaborate structure which can change its distance according to the change of frequency.
The last part of the discussion is about the availability of lens and whether it can perform
with the antenna with circular polarization. In this work, horn antenna which has linear
polarization was measured with the lens. However, in satellite communications, most of
the antennas have circular polarization. Therefore, in the next work, the lens should be
simulated, designed and fabricated with the consideration of both polarizations, linear
and circular polarizations, and it can be developed with the performance that is possible
to cover both polarizations.
5.3 Future work
Due to its all-direction symmetric shape, the lens enhanced the cross-polarization and co-
polarization together. Therefore, in the future, with the understanding of symmetric
structure in detail, a periodic lens structure which can improve only desired polarization,
will be designed. Also, a tunable lens structure, which can be added on top of the patch
array antenna, can be modeled. Fresnel lens from this work is not tunable in terms of
phase change and beam steering. Also, it is just for a single antenna. However, this lens is
able to be considered as a single unit cell of patch array antenna. If it can be broadened as
array structure, the lens or a periodic structure can be also applied to patch array antenna
and improve the performance of antenna. Not just for improving the gain and directivity,
lens can also steer the direction of beam if it can be designed as a reconfigurable structure.
92
In the helical antenna fabrication, the issue of uneven length of gap between the structure
and ground plane and uneven surface finish led to the critical problem in the
measurement. Surface finishing can also be the issue of fabricating lens structure in the
previous chapter of helical antenna fabrication. In mmW and THz frequency range,
surface finishing and the difference of geometry can largely affect the measurement
results and the performance of RF components. Therefore, in the future, a more
complicated fabrication method, coating process and material should be adopted to
achieve better results.
93
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Design, Fabrication and Measurement of Millimeter Fresnel Lens and Helical Antenna

using Additive Manufacturing

Graduate Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Ohio State University

Master's Examination Committee:

Nima Ghalichechian, Advisor

measured these properties using time-domain spectroscopy as well as impedance/material

achieve a gain improvement of 8-9 dB at 30 GHz. Furthermore, a 3D-printed helical

millimeter wave band.

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Nima Ghalichechian, my advisor for

steps of this Thesis.

the helical antenna.

the thesis examination.

2014................................................................B.S. EEE, Chung-Ang University

2015 to present ..............................................Graduate Research Associate, College of

Engineering, Electro Science Lab in The

Ohio State University

Major Field: Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fields of Study ................................................................................................................... iv

Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v

List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii

List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix

Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Motivation ................................................................................................................. 1

1.2 Antennas fabricated using 3D printing technology ................................................... 2

1.2.1 Stereolithography (SLA) .................................................................................... 2

1.2.3 Jetting Technique.............................................................................................. 23

1.2.4 Electronic Beam Melting (EBM) ..................................................................... 29

1.2.5 Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) ................................................................. 32

Chapter 2: Dielectric Characterization of Polylactic Acid (PLA) .................................... 38

2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 38

2.2 Analytical Model ..................................................................................................... 39

2.3 Measurement setup.................................................................................................. 40

2.4 Experimental results ................................................................................................ 42

2.5 Summary ................................................................................................................. 48

Chapter 3: Design and analysis of Fresnel lens ................................................................ 49

3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 49

3.2 Lens design.............................................................................................................. 50

3.3 Simulation ............................................................................................................... 51

3.5 Measurement and results ......................................................................................... 59

Chapter 4: Design and Analysis of Helical Antenna ........................................................ 70

4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 70

4.2 Antenna design ........................................................................................................ 72

4.3 Simulation ............................................................................................................... 74

5.1 Summary ................................................................................................................. 89

5.2 Discussion ............................................................................................................... 90

5.3 Future work ............................................................................................................. 92

Table. 1. Measured results from THz-TDS system .......................................................... 45

Fig. 1. Examples of cube antennas fabricated by PCB (left) and by stereolithography

(right) [3]. ............................................................................................................................ 3

ink and copper plating (lower gain) [4]. ............................................................................. 4

plane, (d) in H plane [4]. ..................................................................................................... 5

Fig. 6. The radiation patterns of ring-focus dual-reflector antennas at 11.3 GHz in E-

plane [5] .............................................................................................................................. 8

Fig. 7. The radiation patterns of ring-focus dual-reflector antennas at 11.3 GHz in H-

plane [5]. ............................................................................................................................. 8

Fig. 8. The radiation patterns of ring-focus dual-reflector antennas at 14.5 GHz in E-

plane [5]. ............................................................................................................................. 9

Fig. 9. The radiation patterns of ring-focus dual-reflector antennas at 14.5 GHz in H-

plane [5]. ............................................................................................................................. 9

GHz [7]. ............................................................................................................................ 17

GHz [7]. ............................................................................................................................ 17

not coated with copper [8]. ............................................................................................... 18