Novel Additive Manufacturing-Enabled RF Devices for 5G/mmWave, IoT, Smart Skins, and Wireless Sensing Applications

Abstract

The recent developments in mmWave and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have dramatically increased the interest and demand for radio frequency (RF) devices that can be used for applications such as smart cities, energy harvesting, and ubiquitous wireless sensor networks. Additive manufacturing technologies (AMT) plays an important role to support these applications, as they allows to significantly reduce fabrication costs and times while enabling the achievement of devices with more complex geometries and the possibility of using a wide variety of materials. This publication reviews recent developments of state-of-the-art wireless devices including reconfigurable antennas, frequency-selective surfaces and highly scalable phased arrays enabled by AMT capabilities. It also discusses the benefits of AMT in the fabrication of interconnects that are suitable for packaging of fully-integrated antennas.