STAR - Design of advanced RF and microwave components for space applications with additive manufacturing

Microwave and radio frequency filters are used in satellites, earth stations, wireless base stations, and other point-to-point repeaters. In modern satellites dielectric-based filters are more and more required due to the need of reducing the footprint and the weight of the payloads. However, the design of such filters is driven by the shapes and types of dielectric materials which limit the options in the design. A promising approach to create complex dielectric structures is additive manufacturing (AM). STAR will address current limitations to develop a process for printing of high permittivity dielectric materials to reproducibly fabricate highly precise parts with tight tolerances for the production of microwave and RF filters to realize improved components for many applications.