Design of shaped dielectric lens antenna for wide angle beam steering

Abstract

SUMMARYA design method is presented for a dielectric lens antenna with a wide beam scanning angle necessary for collision avoidance radar and car-to-car communication in an ITS. First, a design method for an antenna with a superior wide angle beam scanning capability is presented by providing an aperture distribution satisfying the Abbe sine condition for wide angle beam scanning in the shaped lens design to accomplish an arbitrary aperture distribution. Aperture distributions and positions of radiators in the case of wide angle beam scannings are obtained. Next, for evaluation of wide angle beam scanning, antenna performances are compared with the well-known bifocal antenna. In the case of a bifocal lens antenna, it is found that there exists a limit to the realizability of lens surfaces when the lens thickness is large because of the limited number of designed lens points. Radiation characteristics are compared in an antenna with an aperture diameter of 20 wavelengths. In the case of small F/D ratios that can reduce the antenna depth, the shaped lens provides better gains and sidelobe levels than a bifocal lens. When the beam is steered up to 30° in a lens with F/D = 0.5, it is shown that the gain deterioration is 5 dB and the sidelobe level increase is 5 dB.

Analysis of the BDF using caustics of parabolic reflector antennas

“…To investigate the caustic positions, the scanning and transverse planes are considered, as indicated in [6]. The study parameters of the antenna are summarized in Table I.…”

“…Moreover, because a caustic includes all of the reflector curvature information, it summarizes the off-beam characteristics. In some cases of a shaped dielectric lens antenna, the separation of caustics in the scanning and transverse planes was demonstrated by focal region ray tracing [6]. Examination of the caustic characteristics will be adequate to investigate the BDF.…”

Electrically Controllable Liquid Crystal Component for Efficient Light Steering

“…Using a mechanical approach based on mirrors, prisms and lenses usually leads to a costly and too bulky system which does not have the desired flexibility and reliability [1]- [3]. Beam steering devices based on the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) rely on the decentered micro lens technique, the positional or angular displacements of the curved or other specially designed micro mirrors to deflect the incident light beam, allowing the development of many innovative photonic products [4]- [6], but their major limitations are the intricate device structures, complicated fabrication processes, and very small working dimensions.…”

Numerical Investigation Into the Design of Shaped Dielectric Lens Antennas With Improved Angular Characteristics

“…Integrated dielectric lens antennas (DLAs) fed by focal arrays are good candidates for imaging and wireless communication systems [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The desirable feature of such antennas is a stable beam profile for all feeds (with no directivity degradation for off-axis feeds) and also a high, near the diffraction limit, directivity for all the beams.…”