Additive Manufacturing (AM, also known as 3D printing) can produce novel three-dimensional structures using low-loss dielectric materials. This enables the construction of dielectrics with complex shapes that enable innovative microwave applications such as resonators, filters, and metamaterial lenses. This thesis addresses the production and characterization of cellular structures of various designed densities created with a low loss ceramic material, alumina (aluminum oxide), via vat photopolymerization. The permittivity of these printed structures is variable over roughly an octave, with a range of relative permittivites from 1.78 to 3.60, controlled via part geometry. Two additional materials, ferrite and nickel, have been explored for inclusion within these dielectric structures to enable the production of multi-material electromagnetic structures with conductive, magnetic, and dielectric elements. / Master of Science / Additive Manufacturing (AM, also known as 3D printing) has unique manufacturing capabilities. 3D printing can create structures that cannot be produced using traditional manufacturing methods. For example, sponge like structures, with internal voids inaccessible from the outside of the structure, can be created out of a variety of materials. Such structures, known as cellular structures, can be used to create new advanced materials.
Ceramic cellular structures can be produced using 3D printing. Ceramics possess many advantages over other materials for use in high frequency radio systems, such as those used for radar and communications. Notably, ceramics are known as low-loss materials, meaning that when electromagnetic waves travel through them they lose less energy than other materials.
Cellular structures can be used to vary a material property known as the dielectric constant. Creating cellular structures with designed dielectric constants will enable the creation of new and useful electromagnetic structures. Measuring how this material property changes with the geometry of the cellular structures is important to enable their use. These measurements are described in this work.
Additionally, other materials are printed into the ceramic structures. Ferrite, a magnetic material, is extruded as a paste from a nozzle into the ceramic structures. This material is also important for radio systems. Nickel, a good conductor, has also been embedded into the ceramic to provide the ability to create electrically conductive paths inside the part.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/83484 |
| Date | 07 June 2018 |
| Creators | Dumene, Richard Lawrence |
| Contributors | Electrical Engineering, Earle, Gregory D., Williams, Christopher B., Baker, Joseph B. H. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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