Multi-material additive manufacture and microwave-assisted sintering of a metal/ceramic metamaterial antenna structure

Multi-material metal/ceramic 3D structures comprising of metallic silver and ultra-low sintering temperature silver molybdenum oxide ceramics, have been additively manufactured and hybrid densified using microwaveassisted sintering for the first time. Optimum densification conditions at 440 degrees C / 1 h, resulted in relative permittivity, er = 10.99 & PLUSMN; 0.04, dielectric losses, tan5 = 0.005 & PLUSMN; 0.001 and microwave quality factor, Q x f = 2597 & PLUSMN; 540 GHz. Applying 2 kW microwave energy at 2.45 GHz for 60 min, was proven sufficient, to densify the metallic Ag infilling electrodes, without causing any macroscopic defects. A fully functional multi-layered antenna structure with a metamaterial artificial magnetic conductor was designed, dual-printed and densified, to showcase the potential of combining multi-material additive manufacturing with microwave-assisted sintering.

Automated summary

Multi-material metal/ceramic 3D structures consisting of metallic silver and ultra-low sintering temperature silver molybdenum oxide ceramics were additively manufactured and densified using microwave-assisted sintering for the first time. Optimal densification conditions at 440 degrees C / 1 h resulted in a relative permittivity of 10.99 ± 0.04, dielectric losses of 0.005 ± 0.001, and a microwave quality factor of 2597 ± 540 GHz. The use of 2 kW microwave energy at 2.45 GHz for 60 min successfully densified the metallic Ag infilling electrodes without causing any macroscopic defects. A fully functional multi-layered antenna structure with a metamaterial artificial magnetic conductor was designed, dual-printed, and densified to demonstrate the potential of combining multi-material additive manufacturing with microwave-assisted sintering.