3D Printed Dielectric Rod Antenna for Ku-band Frequency Operation

This paper presents a design, simulation and development of rectangular tapered dielectric rod antenna fabricated using 3D printing technology. The focused impedance bandwidth of the antenna's operating frequency range sits on Ku band, which is between 12 GHz and 18 GHz. The resonant frequency was set at 13 GHz. Signal excitation of the rod antenna is through a WR62 waveguide, specific for the Ku band frequency. The reflection coefficient, maximum gain and efficiency are the main performance metric of the antenna development. The antenna simulation achieved a maximum gain of 13.10 dB, and efficiency of 98.83%. Detailed analysis of the antenna's tapered feed is presented in the paper. The antenna was fabricated using fused deposition modelling technique with 4 types of dielectric materials namely COC, ABS, PLA and PeTG.