Full 3-D Printed Microwave Termination: A Simple and Low-Cost Solution

This paper describes the realization and characterization of microwave 3-D printed loads in rectangular waveguide technology. Several commercial materials were characterized at X-band (8-12 GHz). Their dielectric properties were extracted through the use of a cavity-perturbation method and a transmission/reflection rectangular waveguide method. A lossy carbon-loaded Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) polymer was selected to realize a matched load between 8 and 12 GHz. Two different types of terminations were realized by fused deposition modeling: a hybrid 3-D printed termination (metallic waveguide + pyramidal polymer absorber + metallic short circuit) and a full 3-D printed termination (self-consistent matched load). Voltage standing wave ratio of less than 1.075 and 1.025 were measured over X-band for the hybrid and full 3-D printed terminations, respectively. Power behavior of the full 3-D printed termination was investigated. A very linear evolution of reflected power as a function of incident power amplitude was observed at 10 GHz up to 11.5 W. These 3-D printed devices appear as a very low cost solution for the realization of microwave matched loads in rectangular waveguide technology.