Millimeter wave luneburg lens antenna fabricated by polymer jetting rapid prototyping

In this paper, the design, fabrication and characterization of a 3D printed Luneburg lens antenna working at Ka and Q band are proposed. Gradient index control of the lens is based on the mixing ratio of air voids and polymer. The effective dielectric constant of the unit cell was estimated using effective medium theory and extracted from full-wave finite-element simulation results. The diameter of the lens was 7 cm. A 3D polymer jetting rapid prototyping technique was employed to fabricate the lens antenna. In the measurement, the fabricated lens antenna was fed by Ka and Q band waveguides and the measured radiation pattern showed this 3D printed lens works well as a high gain antenna.