Fabrication of millimeter wave components via ceramic stereo- and microstereolithography processes

Complex ceramic parts, designed by 3D electromagnetic simulations for microwave devices of high performances, are difficult, even impossible, to elaborate by classical ceramic processing routes. This paper demonstrates the direct fabrication of useful complex microwave devices in millimeter and submillimeter wavelength domains, with a high dimensional resolution, by the numerical techniques of stereolithography and microstereolithography. Alumina and zirconia formulations have been developed with a powder loading > 50 vol%, a suitable rheology to spread thin (25-50 mu m) and homogeneous layers, and with a sufficient reactivity to UV for polymerization. Devices built with a satisfying manufacturing accuracy have presented excellent experimental electrical behaviors in good agreement with the theoretical ones.