Using additive manufacturing for feed chain and other passive microwave components

This paper describes the use of additive manufacturing to realise satellite feed chain and other waveguide components. The advantages and drawbacks of different processes are discussed and examples of components and their performance are presented. A number of the presented components exploit the inherent geometric freedom of additive manufacturing. The near term outlook and ongoing development activities of additive manufacturing at Airbus Defence and Space conclude the paper.

I. Introduction

The market for telecommunications satellites is seeing an increase in demand for high data rates, commonly referred to as (very) high throughput satellites (HTS). The high data rates would traditionally require greater bandwidth but multibeam antennas allow concentration of power into spots. This allows frequency reuse which greatly increases spectral efficiency [1]. The antennas typically consist of offset reflectors fed by horn clusters. Up to 100 beams may be required and operators are seeking to increase this. The feed clusters usually consist of single feed per beam architectures which means that a lot of feeds require supplying. Multiple feed per beam (MFB) architectures will require even more feeds to be supplied. This places new demands on mass, cost, lead time and thermal concept. Traditionally the feed chain is constructed of multiple elements (horn polariser, OMJ, filters) many of which consist of multiple parts. These parts are manufactured using conventional techniques such as milling, turning or electro-discharge machining.