Wide angle beam scanning at millimeter waves using a planar lens

High directivity millimeter wave antenna arrays employed in portable or mobile equipment require extreme ranges of antenna beam scanning or steering angles. A proposed planar lens composed of an array of sub-wavelength spatial phase shifters is shown to provide antenna beam steering beyond the normal limits of a 4×4 patch antenna array by as much as 15 degrees. The patch array and lens combination are shown to reduce the variation of directivity to 2 dB or less over scan angles from -60o to +60°.