Mapping geometric and electromagnetic feature spaces with machine learning for additively manufactured RF devices

Multi-material additive manufacturing enables transformative capabilities in customized, low-cost, and multi-functional electromagnetic devices. However, process-specific fabrication anomalies can result in non-intuitive effects on performance; we propose a framework for identifying defect mechanisms and their performance impact by mapping geometric variances to electromagnetic performance metrics. This method can accelerate additive fabrication feedback while avoiding the high computational cost of in-line electromagnetic simulation. We first used dimension reduction to explore the population of geometric manufacturing anomalies and electromagnetic performance. Convolutional neural networks are then trained to predict the electromagnetic performance of the printed geometries. In generating the networks, we explored two inputs: one image-derived geometric description and one using the same description with additional simulated electromagnetic information. Network latent space analysis shows the networks learned both geometric and electromagnetic values even without electromagnetic input. This result demonstrates it is possible to create accelerated additive feedback systems predicting electromagnetic performance without in-line simulation.