Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Civil/Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineering
Session: 4
Room: Exhibit Hall
Ashley N. Bryant - Southern University and A&M College
Co-Author(s): Daniel Yeboah, Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA.; Fareed Dawan, PhD., Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA.; Patrick Mensah, PhD., Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA.
Antennas are found in many technological devices such as in vehicles, mobile phones, televisions, and computers to list a few. Antennas transmit and receive electromagnetic wave radiation, making communication over long distances possible. These devices are made of metals that are able to radiate such waves. Conventional methods for making the metal elements for the antennas can be costly, time consuming and may have high energy requirements. Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing methods have evolved in recent years as an important technology for rapid engineering solutions in several industrial applications. AM methods are revolutionizing product development and manufacturing as a low cost, high throughput sector with a lower resource requirement for mass production and customization. Interest in 3D printing is significantly growing to overcome challenges associated with traditional manufacturing processes like micromachining, injection molding and some clean room fabrication methods due to its ease of production, low complexity, and minimal wastage of material. Therefore, 3D printing can be utilized as a simpler approach to fabricate radio frequency, microwave and or millimeter wave components like antennas, waveguides, resonators, etc. Diversity of the printing techniques and available materials allow a higher degree of freedom in the choice of different substrate properties for designing modern antennas. The present research aims at making 3D printed structures based on various computer aided designs (CAD) for advanced, compact, low-profile antennas for communication applications. The printed antennas are expected to possess acceptable gain, directivity and low reflection coefficients – essential parameters for antenna devices. Particular attention will be given to the building of an experimental environment (i.e., anechoic chamber), testing and characterization of the devices to ensure their feasibility in practical applications. The tests will seek to measure dielectric constants of antenna substrates where necessary, measure the frequency at which the devices operate and the wavelengths in which such frequencies are stable.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): This research was sponsored by the Center of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) REU program funded by the National Science Foundation under grant number HRD 1736136.
Faculty Advisor: Fareed Dawan, PhD., Fareed.dawan@sus.edu
Role: My part of the research is to create the CAD drawings designed by my graduate student, design and produce a protype anechoic chamber, and preform mechanical test on protype antennas.