3D printed Rotman lens

Optimum Wideband High Gain Analog Beamforming Network for 5G Applications

“…It exhibits a reasonable gain level, especially with its compact size. It is smaller than all systems mentioned in Table 3 except [18] and [21] but is better than both of them for its low-cost, low profile, and extremely light-weight. In addition, the proposed system has a better broadband than [18] with more than 42% FBW.…”

“…Therefore, dummy ports number, size, and position should be optimized to obtain an acceptable phase and amplitude performance, where they still contribute to the magnitude and phase variation at the array ports due to the multipath reflection. It should be noted that some Rotman lens designs do not employ dummy ports and are replaced by absorbing material [21], [36]. Also because there is some energy lost to the dummy ports, [21] suggests a bed of nails technology to guide the waves instead of dummy ports for effective energy reuse.…”

“…It should be noted that some Rotman lens designs do not employ dummy ports and are replaced by absorbing material [21], [36]. Also because there is some energy lost to the dummy ports, [21] suggests a bed of nails technology to guide the waves instead of dummy ports for effective energy reuse.…”

“…Furthermore, SIW Rotman lens-based beamforming or multibeam systems of [17]- [20] show a very narrowband performance (∼4%-7%), which reduces the spectrum utilization of a TTD component such as Rotman lens. Alternatively, ridge gap waveguide (RGW) technology is proposed to realize Rotman lens for the advantage of only metal and air are used; therefore, the dielectric losses associated with PCB or SIW technologies are eliminated [21], [22]. An RGW Rotman lens is proposed in [23] for beam scanning in millimeter wave applications.…”

“…Also, machining of such device in the mmWave band is exceptionally costly. Subsequently, there are some trials to reduce the implementation cost using metalized three-dimensional printing technology (3D-Printed) as reported in [21]. This might explain why only a few solutions have been reported so far to implement mmWave Rotman lens using RGW or 3D-Printed.…”