Geodesic Half-Maxwell Fish-Eye-Lens Antenna

Abstract

We propose and implement a geodesic half-Maxwell fish-eye lens antenna. The lens was optimized using an inhouse physical optics code adapted for generalized geodesic lenses. The final antenna design was validated with commercial electromagnetic simulation software. The antenna combines a modulated geodesic half-Maxwell fish-eye lens and a transition to a linear flare, which is needed to preserve the linear polarization in the aperture. The antenna prototype, designed to operate in Ka-band, was manufactured with CNC milling and measured in an anechoic chamber. The design provides continuous beam scanning thanks to a mechanically actuated feed. Promising beam scanning properties are demonstrated in an angular range of ±45°with scan loss below 3 dB, as well as good frequency stability from 26 GHz to 32 GHz. Since the antenna is fully metallic, its radiation efficiency is high (approximately 90%).

Alumina 3-D Printed Wide-Angle Partial Maxwell Fish-Eye Lens Antenna

“…as an antenna for radar systems [1], space satellite communications [2]- [3], reference radar targets and frequency-coded retroreflectors [4]- [6], power splitters [7], or invisible cloaking [8]. Typical representations of wide-angle lenses are Luneburg lenses [9], Gutman lenses [10]- [11], Maxwell Fish-Eye lenses (MFE) [12]- [16], Eaton lenses [17]- [18], or geodesic lenses [19]. Fabrication techniques for the aforementioned lenses vary from a full metallic implementation (bed-of-nails [20], groove gap waveguide [21], parallel plate waveguide [21]) to the lens realization using dielectric materials (3D printing [23], mechanical or chemical micromachining [5], substrate integrated waveguides [1]).…”

Physical Optics Applied to Parallel-Plate Lens Antennas

“…This combined procedure has also been used to study the effect of dielectric radomes on antennas [29]- [33], as well as in the analysis/synthesis of reflectors [34]- [36]. Recently, some of the authors have reported a combination of ray tracing and a simplified version of PO to study the H-plane radiation pattern of geodesic lenses [37]- [40].…”

“…In this work, we will extend the simplified approach presented in [37]- [40] by applying physical optics to find the directivity and/or gain of planar graded-index and geodesic lenses based on a parallel-plate waveguide (PPW) implementation [1], [8], [41], considering material losses. As has been widely reported in the literature [42]- [44], beamformer antennas based on PPW configurations have several relevant advantages capable of meeting the new demands of millimeter-wave terrestrial, aerial and space communication systems.…”

V-Band Monolithic Additive-Manufactured Geodesic Lens Array Antenna

“…To decrease the total height of these lenses, their profile can be mirrored as initially proposed in [4], or modulated as in [5]. Some examples of gradedindex lenses that have been implemented into geodesic shapes are the Luneburg [6], half-Luneburg [7], [8], generalized Luneburg [9], near-field focusing [10], half-Maxwell fisheye [11], and double-layer reflective lenses [12].…”