Development of antenna-feed chain components through Selective Laser Melting

The application of the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process to the manufacturing of all-metal waveguide devices is discussed in this paper. First, a technological overview of the SLM process is reported, then the investigation of the impact of the process parameters on the electromagnetic performances of waveguide is shown. Thanks to this analysis, different filters, operating in Ku/K bands, have been built and tested. The measured performances, reported in the paper, prove the effectiveness of the SLM to the manufacturing of microwave devices.