Fully 3D-printed spring metasurface loaded with dielectric substrate

This article presents the design, construction and measurement of a 3D-printed spring metasurface loaded with a dielectric 3D-printed substrate. The spring-like metasurface is constructed using a high-conductive filament for the conductive parts and a low-cost polylactic acid (PLA) filament as a dielectric substrate. The addition of the dielectric substrate lowers the frequencies where the stopband is generated, when compared to the same spring metasurface without the substrate. The possibility to add a dielectric substrate thanks to 3D-printing allows a reduction of the overall size of the spring structure in terms of the operating wavelength. Measurement results show good match with the simulated structures, confirming the feasibility of implementation for this 3D-printed metasurface topology.