Review of 3D metal printed antenna technologies

In recent years, with the rapid increase in the number of communication users and the rapid development of the communication equipment market, high-speed communication systems with data rates higher than 10 Gbit/s require multiple functions integrated on the antenna, and antenna manufacturing requirements tend to be high-precision, low-cost and miniaturization. 3D printing or additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging industrial technology that directly manufactures of parts made from digital models and can produce high-precision and complex antenna parts in a short time. This technology has become a research hotspot in current antenna design. AM technology for manufacturing antennas mainly includes powder bed fusion, material extrusion, and material jetting. This paper first briefly introduces the basic principle, operation flow and classification of 3D metal printing technologies, and then focuses on the analysis of the research results of several 3D metal printed antenna technologies. Then, this paper analyzes the development trend of 3D metal printed antenna technologies, and finally makes a summary on 3D metal printed antenna technologies.