Physical vapor deposition (PVD) is a well established technique for depositing metallic materials on a substrate from the vapor phase. PVD was used to perform aluminium coatings on dielectric substrate microwave horn antennas (K band: 18 – 26 GHz). Enough aluminium thickness was achieved to guarantee skin depth and therefore waveguiding capabilities. For the same type of antennas, coatings with different thicknesses were applied in order to test the applicability of this process. Resistive heating PVD evaporates an aluminium rod (~1 g), allowing high deposit rates without substrate heating deterioration. Antennas characterization and PVD production process, including employed vacuum system, are described. PVD of metallic films combined with 3D dielectric prototype production has proved to be a reliable and inexpensive method for microwave antennas production, even on small scale as required for scientific prototyping. |
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