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Application of hybrid laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing to microwave radio frequency quarter wave cavity resonators

The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology volume 124, pages 619–632 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

In this paper, we present the first known experimental results in using hybrid additive-subtractive laser powder bed fusion (h-LPBF) to make a type of passive radio frequency component called a quarter wave resonator (QWR). The h-LPBF process uses in-situ, interlayer vertical milling to machine certain inaccessible, critical internal features of the QWR device during printing. Using h-LPBF, the as-built surface roughness of functionally important features improved to Ra ~ 2 µm compared to Ra ~ 8 to 20 µm for conventional (additive only) LPBF-processed QWRs. Additionally, the dimensions of certain critical features were closer to their intended design. These metrological improvements resulting from h-LPBF reduced RF losses by a factor of almost 2. Consequently, the RF performance (Q-factor) of h-LPBF-processed QWR components were 1.5 to 2 times superior compared to their conventional LPBF counterparts, and the performance advantage was sustained on stress relief and chemical etching. These results were verified with theoretical electromagnetic simulations.

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Funding

The authors would like to thank Alexander Smirnov for assistance with the RF measurements as well as Pedro Frigola for overseeing the overall project scope. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of High Energy Physics, under SBIR grant DE-SC0019973. Prahalada Rao thanks the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Energy (DoE) for funding his work under awards OIA-1929172, CMMI-1920245, CMMI-1739696, ECCS-2020246, PFI-TT 2044710, CMMI-1752069, CMMI-1719388, and DE-SC0021136. Using the hybrid-LPBF process as a means to improve part quality was the major aspect of CMMI-1752069 (program officer: Kevin Chou). Supplemental funding for CMMI-1752069 was obtained through the NSF INTERN program (program officer: Prakash Balan) and CMMI Data Science Activities (program officer: Martha Dodson), which is greatly appreciated. The latter supplement funded Ziyad Smoqi’s research. The X-ray CT analysis was conducted on the instrument, partially funded through the Major Research Instrumentation grant (CMMI-1920245, program officer: Wendy C. Crone). Alex Riensche’s work was funded partially through the DoE grants DE-SC0021136 and OIA-1929172.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Alex Riensche, Ziyad Smoqi, Andrew Menendez & Prahalada Rao

  2. Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, USA

    Alex Riensche & Prahalada Rao

  3. Radiabeam Technologies, Santa Monica, CA, USA

    Paul Carriere, Pedro Frigola, Sergey Kutsaev, Aurora Araujo & Nanda Gopal Matavalam

Authors
  1. Alex Riensche
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  2. Paul Carriere
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  3. Ziyad Smoqi
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  4. Andrew Menendez
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  6. Sergey Kutsaev
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  7. Aurora Araujo
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  9. Prahalada Rao
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Alex Riensche, Paul Carriere, and Prahalada Rao. Manufacturing of the part was carried out by Alex Riensche and Andrew Menendez. Technical guidance for experiments was provided by Paul Carriere and Prahalada Rao. Measurements were carried out by Alex Riensche, Ziyad Smoqi, Paul Carriere, and Nanda Gopal Matavalam. Analysis and characterization were carried out by Aurora Araujo. Supervision was provided by Prahalada Rao, Pedro Frigola and Sergey Kutsaev. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Alex Riensche, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors acknowledge the following students from the Spring 2021 ME 472/872 Additive Manufacturing class at University of Nebraska-Lincoln taught by Prahalada Rao for their kind assistance with experiments and X-ray CT measurements: Messrs. Jack Keating, Jack Dier, and Justin McEnroe.  

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Correspondence to Prahalada Rao.

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Riensche, A., Carriere, P., Smoqi, Z. et al. Application of hybrid laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing to microwave radio frequency quarter wave cavity resonators. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 124, 619–632 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-10547-y

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