PrintedRadar

Up to now, patch antennas, i.e. flat antennas made of conduc­tive mate­rials, have been used in the radar industry. These have to be fabri­cated on low-loss, dielec­tric and extremely expen­sive substrates (e.g. Rogers substrates). In addi­tion, due to their flat geom­etry, they must be large to reduce the nega­tive inter­fer­ence between the indi­vidual radar chan­nels. New devel­op­ments aim at using wave­guide systems in combi­na­tion with 3D antennas, e.g. horn antennas. Such designs offer the possi­bility of minia­tur­iza­tion while improving the perfor­mance of the overall radar system.

Print­e­dRadar is pursuing the approach of exploring addi­tive manu­fac­turing for 3D wave­guide radar antenna systems to accel­erate the devel­op­ment of auto­mated driving appli­ca­tions with the devel­op­ment of inno­v­a­tive sensor tech­nology. A major limi­ta­tion compared to conven­tional 3D printing is the need for metal­liza­tion and high surface quality of the wave­guides and antenna struc­tures. Print­e­dRadar is inves­ti­gating the fabri­ca­tion of light­weight polymer 3D wave­guide radar antenna systems using SLA, DLP and inkjet printing with subse­quent metal­liza­tion and the devel­op­ment of a multi-mate­rial inkjet printing process for direct addi­tive fabri­ca­tion of radar antenna systems including metal­liza­tion and filling of the struc­tures. The simu­la­tions carried out in the consor­tium, the testing of different designs, the subse­quent char­ac­ter­i­za­tion and the compar­ison with state-of-the-art systems serve to sustain­ably build up exper­tise in radar systems and their produc­tion. SAL trans­lates the antenna defi­n­i­tion provided by Infi­neon into a hard­ware imple­men­ta­tion based on the require­ments of the 3D printing process provided by ProFactor and the mate­rial prop­er­ties derived from Tiger Coat­ings.

An addi­tive manu­fac­turing process for radar antenna systems will enable rapid imple­men­ta­tion and testing of new designs. This will be of partic­ular interest for low-volume appli­ca­tions where antenna quality and perfor­mance require­ments are para­mount. Poten­tial cross-industry appli­ca­tions include ground radar systems or stationary radar systems.