Designing A 3D Printing Based Channel Emulator

This research explored the possibility of building channel emulators by utilizing fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing technology, which provides a rapid and low cost method with high flexibility to produce parts with many shapes of interest. Algorithms are developed for obtaining the printing pattern and loss profile based on S parameters of a target channel to be emulated. Parts with different dielectric constants, and loss tangents can be printed using filament with high dielectric constant or conductive fillers. Those parts will be placed on a low loss transmission line. As a result, different channel emulators can be built with the advantage of avoiding complicated electronic components, and only being limited in the frequency range by the base trace and its connectors. Keywords—3D printing; channel emulator; dielectric constants; FDM; transmission line