Evaluation 3D printing technologies for the realization of RF and microwave components

The recent emergence of the 3D printing technology, also called additive manufacturing (AM), and its more than obvious possible application for microwaves purposes leads to a potential improvement in the field of low-cost high-performance mass production. This thesis aims to evaluate such 3D printing manufacturing processes by making a comparison between devices manufactured by the 3D printing procedure and their equivalent devices manufactured with other well-known manufacturing processes. The device chosen as the object of comparison is a half-wave end coupled resonator filter. For the implementation of these filters, the resonators are first designed in each of the manufacturing technologies to be compared, making emphasis on 3D printing. From these resonators, the quality factor is obtained, from which it is possible to predict the response of each filter. Results are evaluated in order to validate such novel manufacturing technique.