Study on Manufacturing Process Optimization of Radar Planar Slot Array Antenna Based on QFD

Planar slot array antenna is the core component of phased array radar with many advantages. As a typical thin-walled multilayer complex cavity structure, this type of antenna is difficult to manufacture due to the complex structure and high dimensional shape accuracy. Nowadays, the main manufacturing process scheme of the planar slot array antenna is high speed precision milling of the antenna single-layer parts and integrally vacuum brazing welding of the antenna. However, in the vacuum brazing welding process, some serious quality problems such as insufficient welding, welding deformation and excessive size deviation will be caused by adopting unsuitable process factors. These quality problems will resulting in low processing yield (<30%) and become the bottleneck in the development and production processes of the phased array radar. In this paper, on the basis of the original process scheme, the processing quality analysis of the antenna manufacturing process is performed by using the Quality Function Deployment (QFD). Using three mass house matrices, the functional requirements are gradually transformed into structural feature requirements, process requirements. The key process which have a great influence on the quality of antenna processing is determined. Four-factor and three-level orthogonal experiments are carried out on the key process factors, and the optimum parameters were determined. The validation results indicate that the requirement of manufacturing quality for planar slot array antenna can be satisfied by using optimal process factors. And the processing yield can also be guaranteed to exceed 90% during the antenna production process.