3D Printing Horn Antennas

3D Printed K-Band Horn Antennas

Many radar system utilize horn antennas to shape the beam pattern from the radar and increase signal gain. There a a few companies around which produce SGH (Standard Gain Horn) Antennas. Typically, these antennas are machined out of aluminum and are manufactured with high tolerance and the beam pattern and gain is guaranteed to be within a certain tolerance. These antennas are typically very expensive (ranging anywhere from $150  to  >$500 (for a typical 15dBi Gain k-band Antenna), and often not kept in stock. On ebay you can find plastic-metallized antennas or die-cast metal  antennas ranging in price anywhere from $10 – $200. These prices are cheaper but the inventory is often limited and spotty. With a 3D-printer and a can of metal-based spray paint you can print your own horn antennas with fairly good performance characteristics at a significantly lower cost.

For the past few months I have been testing various antennas models and materials until I found a design that delivered good performance. The image above shows some of the antenna models and materials printed and tested. Finding a design that produced a strong structure and good gain performance took a few iterations. The image below shows some of the failed prints.

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The final k-band horn antenna model that I settled on is shown below. These are linearly polarized antennas which mate with WR-42 waveguide flange. The horns are printed  using PLA (left green horn) and then painted with a metal-based paint (right gray horn). The horns have been test over a 23GHz – 26GHz range and compared to the output of 15dBi SGH. Initial test show a similar performance over this frequency band with ~ 11dBi of gain. Detailed results will be added at a later date. Soon, we will be offering these horns for sale at our online store, both metal-painted and unpainted.  For more information fill in the contact form below.

3D Printed K-band Horn Antennas. Bare model (left) and metal-painted model (right).