The main tasks of the project include project management, preparation of market activities in the form of commercialisation and dissemination, and technological development. The latter task involves industrialisation and automation of the processes and extension of applications. In the work package project management, the project has been successfully coordinated, and finances have been handled prudently. In addition, technical and risk management are carried out, as well as protection and competitor monitoring. The work package Commercialisation and Dissemination focuses on driving forward subsequent commercialisation. This includes incorporating the impact of technical decisions and changes in market conditions into the business plan. In addition, the sales network and corresponding structures are to be created. Another important aspect in this context is ensuring quality and internal processes. To this end, topics such as approvals and certification, supplier qualification and supply chain management, ERP and logistics, and dissemination and communication are being addressed. The above-mentioned goals have been successfully implemented so far. The core and largest work package is process industrialisation and automation. The primary focus here is on automating the work steps of 3D printing, cleaning, metallisation, and measurement or quality testing. This has already been implemented in the project. The next step is now the start-up of the production process and pilot production, and validation. The final work package during the project period focuses on extending the applications. The first area of work here is the extension of the frequency range in order to use 3D printing technology for antennas for frequencies above 100 GHz for large-scale production applications. Higher frequencies are associated with higher data rates and higher resolution in imaging systems. The second area deals with the development of high-resolution radar antennas. The main focus here is on increasing the number of transmitting and receiving channels. This is where 3D printing offers major advantages over established manufacturing processes. Initial results look extremely promising.
