3-D Printed Antenna for Snowpack Monitoring

Microwave radars represent a viable solution to perform rapid and nondestructive snowpack analyses. Depending on the working frequency, they are required to provide a suitable compromise between the penetration depth and the spatial resolution. For these reasons, antennas able to cover relatively large fractional bandwidths at a few gigahertz are fundamental, while minimizing the antenna mass and volume to do not jeopardize the portability often required to these systems. This letter presents the development and the experimental results of a novel antenna realized by three-dimensional printing, based on a double-ridge waveguide configuration and on the use of different infill percentages. The operation bandwidth is from 2.3 to 6 GHz, with a gain at the central frequency of around 5 dBi. The antenna is fabricated using low-loss filaments, with a relatively high dielectric constant (4.5); thus, maintaining the mass in the order of 100 g, with an encumbrance of 5.16 x 2.40 x 6.78 cm(3).