Ultem®, a GE plastic, was chosen for this project for a number of reasons. The stability of the final molded product was critical to the performance of this filter but the ability to also fabricate a machined prototype prior to going into fullbore production was another advantage of this unique plastic.
The Plating challenge was to make sure the silver penetrated down to the bottom of each cavity. This was accomplished by unique, proprietary tooling that supported production in the thousands of units.
The customer, Teledyne microwave, was proud enough of this concept to have it featured on the cover of the IEEE magazine, one of the most well respected publications in the field of microwave and electronics.
The plating of dielectric materials such as Ultem®, Ryton®, Torlon®, Teflon® and carbon fibre composites and ceramics is a specialty of Epner Technology.
