Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing for Smart and Light-Weight Airborne Radar and EW Systems

Research Project, 2025 – 2028

Purpose and goal
This project aims to demonstrate an innovative approach to designing and manufacturing lightweight sensors for small airborne platforms, capable of generating high-efficiency microwave signals. The increasing need for higher output power in military surveillance radars is driven by the emergence of smaller, faster-moving threats. However, improved output power leads to high power dissipation, requiring advanced thermal management solutions.

Expected effects and result
The proposed solution leverages advanced multi-material additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, enabling the integration of structural, thermal, and microwave functions into a single, coherent component. Multi-material AM facilitates the selection of optimal materials for thermal management, while enabling the use of low-loss dielectric materials for high-performance microwave designs, effectively addressing both thermal and electromagnetic eligibility requirements.

Planned approach and implementation
This project will design, fabricate and characterize a TRL4 demonstrator consisting of combined microwave and thermal functional parts in a single component using novel multi-material AM integrated with a high-power GaN MMIC. This method provides a significant reduction in size and weight compared to traditional solutions that combine multiple separate components.