An All-Metal, 3-D-Printed CubeSat Feed Horn: An assessment of performance conducted at 118.7503 GHz using a robotic antenna range

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3-D) printing is finding applications across many areas and may be a useful technology for antenna fabrication for cube satellites (CubeSats). However, the quality of an antenna produced using 3-D printing must be considered if this technology can be relied upon. We present gain and far-field pattern results for the feed horn of the radiometer payload of the CubeSat PolarCube. The corrugated feed horn is constructed from AlSi10Mg alloy and fabricated using powder bead fusion (PBF). Measurements were performed at the atmospheric oxygen line of 118.7503 GHz with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Configurable Robotic Millimeter-Wave Antenna (CROMMA) facility in Boulder, Colorado. A comparison of these measurements to theoretical predictions provides an assessment of the performance of the feed horn.